Re: [Off Topic] Windows Genuine Advantage

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Harry Binswanger wrote:
. . . turn it around: what
value, proper or improper, could MS get from having pointless
revalidations of the software license--hundreds of millions of them?!
But does anybody really believe MS is going to sell info to advertisers
or something like that? That would be business suicide.
What has a lot of people worried is that there are
persistent rumors (which I don't think M$ has
unequivocally denied) that they may someday use such a
hook to deactivate an older opsys when they, in their
infinite wisdom, have decided that everybody must
upgrade to their latest and [supposedly] greatest. One
day you boot up a 9x or W2K box and up pops a message:
"Microsoft has discontinued this version and it is no
longer operative. Please upgrade to Windows Ultra" (or
whatever).
Also that they may prevent you from using applications
that they "don't like" (published by a competetor that
they're trying to buy out or put out of business).
Or suppose I were more vocal in my dislike, and was
working on a book denouncing M$. If it looked like
hitting home, and they found the text on my hard drive,
you think they wouldn't do something?

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx