Windows 7 and the War of Software Piracy

With the release of Windows 7 RC, cyber-criminals have already started to monger it! There have been reports of illegitimate distributions of Windows 7 RC that have infected the user’s computers with malware. This could lead to potential identity theft, system failures and unrecoverable data loss. Not just that, it also costs the world economy more than 45 billion dollars annually.

Windows 7 has anti-piracy guards that show pop-up boxes to warn people when unauthorized copies of software are spied on computers.

Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, says:

“Ensuring that customers can trust the product they are using is particularly important since pirated software can contain malware and can threaten a user’s personal privacy and information. In fact, in the last few days we’ve seen reports of illegitimate distributions of the release candidate of our latest Windows operating system, Windows 7, being offered in a way that is designed to infect a customer’s PC with malware. This is why it’s so important for customers to get their copies of Windows from a trusted source.”

Microsoft’s primary goals:

1. To enable Windows to protect itself by detecting when attempts have been made to tamper with the technology
2. To improve the experience of activating the product easily and, when necessary, to understand and resolve any issues they might face.

There have been many instances where customers want to buy genuine software (and believed they did!) only to find out later that they were victims of software piracy. Microsoft has been focusing its anti-piracy efforts on protecting customers and partners from the evolving risks of counterfeit software and increasingly sophisticated piracy scams.

(Source: Microsoft)