Why does MS force me to reactivate XP PRO?

August 16, 2008

Hi,

I do not endorse piracy. You use it - you pay for it.

MS has a legitimate right to protect their commercial interests. It's one

of those self evident statements that are tough to argue against. However,

as with all things the devil is in the detail.

MS Does not have the right to kick down my door at 3 am to see if I have a

COA on hand. Sounds absurd? How about this? MS decides I'm a pirate (might

be a pirate?) and unilaterally pulls the pin on XP PRO after 3 days UNLESS I

behave like a good little sheep and do as I'm told (see Pavlov)?

The problem with large organisations (and government) is that they need to

be reminded once in a while that they are not all powerful and they do not

have unqualified control (power / authority / legal rights) over what we do.

Staying only with MS, the issue is one of enforcement of contractual

obligations: essentially enforcement of promises.

I legally purchased an XP PRO licence and have used it strictly in accord

with the licence agreement. Software changes, as we are all to familiar with

observing. These occur because of an amalgam of bug fixes, security patches

and evolution (feature enhancement or deprecation). The hardware environment

is more likely to change as the machine ages. I'll leave it to others to

determine at what point the original PC changes sufficiently to warrant

paying for another licence but this issue is central to MS dilemma and needs

wide debate.

MS abuse their positon every time they unjustifiably force a user to

reactivate their legally purchased software. In legal terms, they are in

breach of contract because they unilaterally terminate the agreement by

rendering the OS unusable. If I wanted to be an idiot I could waste my life

getting MS to play the reactivation game 24 / 7. I have more interesting

things to do. However, this is the absurd position MS force upon legitimate

customers and themselves because they (MS) distributed flawed security

controls in their operating system - XP PRO.

The definition of flawed is to be interpretted in its natural meaning.

I changed no hardware on my PC. Not one piece of hardware was added or

removed excluding inter alia, as required, attchment of USB drives /

printeres.

I altered a bios setting.

This heinous act triggered MS's software control systems which 'determined'

that I had breached my contractual agreement with MS: I've been given a

generous 3 days to fix the problem (re-activate) or MS will functionally

challenge my lawful ability to enjoy my XP licence INCLUDING all other

functions and features (games / internet / documents / commercial

applications etc). This is distrubingly, ominously reminisent of Orwellian

logic (courtesy of 1984): "double speak". The MS security control was

triggered ergo I am a criminal until I prove otherwise. The control would

not have triggered unless I was in breach of my contract with MS (logic

loop).

For any legal minded folk, the onus of proof shifts from presumption of

innocence to presumption of guilt. I have to prove innocence. MS need do

nothing apparently - their work is done having caught me in a criminal act of

BIOS altering without their permission or consent.

Sorry. The only thing wrong is with MS's flawed anti-piracy efforts.

Unless I do what MS tell me (reactivate) then I am at fault. "Honest people

won't object ... just the pirates." Yeah - pigs fly. I'm seriously annoyed

and about to be seriously inconvenienced by a party to a software contract

imposing additional costs (consideration) upon me after a legal contract was

executed. I have no remedy other than take MS to court.

On the other hand, using purely lawful means, I can bring this absurdity to

the attention of the media who love bashing MS and let them feed on the

company. Bad publicity for bad practices ... seems to be an elegant balance

of karma.

MS - I am not a pirate but a lawful and legal customer. I've done nothing

wrong. You do not have any right to terminate my lawful enjoyment of this

software (XP PRO) and your efforts to do so are called conversion - a tort.

It is actionable per se which means I do not need to prove anything other

than that this has happened. MS's legal defences are limited and in context,

none apply.

So, how inconvenient would it be for me to take MS to court for trespass

property and or breach of contract? To me - not much. Like I said, I need

only prove MS has interfered with the lawful enjoyment of my software

licence.

Why not just call MS and sort it out? Well, I've done nothing wrong. I've

paid for the licence. Phone calls aren't free nor is my time or the

inconvenience to me. I anticipate I may make a few adjustments to BIOS

settings / hardware configuration (swapping SATA drives in / out etc) ...

system performance tweaking. If i activate then I will be forced to call MS

(big brother) to calm them down and get their OK to live a normal life. Good

grief ... people have become too hesitant to speak out against absurd

commercial practices that intrude too far into our lives. I'm not a sheep

nor an evangelist ... just one annoyed customer who has finally had enough of

this crap.

Game on MS ... I'm not happy and I do not appreciate being inconvenienced

without due cause.