Microsoft Corp has come under fire for its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy tool, which has been slammed as 'spyware'. Besides a class action lawsuit, the company is also facing allegations that it plans to make Windows XP unusable for users who don't install the WGA.
The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles plaintiff Brian Johnson in a federal court in Seattle, claims that Microsoft installed the tool without obtaining permission from the users and misled them into believing that the tool, distributed through Microsoft's Automatic Update feature, was a 'critical' one. “Microsoft's actions violated state consumer protection and anti-spyware statues.
Microsoft effectively installed the WGA software on consumers' systems without providing consumers any opportunity to make an informed choice about that software. (The company) hid, misrepresented, and/or failed to disclose the true nature, features, and functionality of the WGA software to consumers,” papers filed in the court said.
Two kinds of WGA applications, validation and notification, are downloaded onto a user's computer. While the first validates if the Windows used on the computer is a licensed one, the second pops up notifications about getting a licensed version. Defending Microsoft's stance, company spokesman Jim Desler said the lawsuit was 'without merit'. “It's distorting the objectives of WGA and the filing obscures the harm of software piracy. WGA is distributed in a manner that is lawful. WGA is not spyware. When you consider the accepted definition of spyware, that it's installed without the user's consent and has some malicious purpose, it's clear WGA is not spyware,” he said.
On unlicensed Windows editions being turned off by remote control, as alleged by some blogs over the Internet, the company answered in the negative. “No, Microsoft anti-piracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer. (But) The game is changing for counterfeiters. In Windows Vista, we are making it notably harder and less appealing to use counterfeit software, and we will work to make that a consistent experience with older versions of Windows as well,” another Microsoft spokesperson said.
But the Redmond-based company's assertions might fall on deaf ears as most software and legal experts agree that the method in which it distributed the WGA does raise some questions. “What Microsoft did to induce people to load this program onto their computers was misleading, and Microsoft never said was going to communicate information about your computer and Internet address, but it did,” said attorney Scott Kamber, who is representing Johnson in the lawsuit. According to security analyst Richard Stiennon, the WGA 'meets the definition of spyware' because it is downloaded onto the user's computer 'surreptitiously'. “It did not warn what it was going to do and even masqueraded as a 'critical update'. Lack of uninstall is another criterion match,” he said.
Even though the company has denied it will disable pirated Windows, bloggers feel otherwise. Carnegie Mellon University's computer expert Dave Farber had written in his blog that he conversed with a Microsoft support executive. “(The executive) told me that 'in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if it's not installed, Windows will give a 30-day warning and when the 30 days are up and WGA isn't installed, Windows will stop working. So you might as well install WGA now'.” What makes matters worse is that the WGA sometimes erroneously reports a Windows package as counterfeited even if it is genuine. “If WGA becomes mandatory, would it mean that Microsoft could prevent Windows from working if it determines, possibly erroneously, that your copy isn't 'genuine'? That's a chilling possibility,” wrote another blogger Ed Bott.
