Microsoft: The Advantages of using illegal software
Microsoft has committed large resources into educating people on the illegal use of software and how it harms the industry since the launch of Windows 95.
microsoft -
comments -
22.2.2007 Dealer of forged Microsoft licenses goes to jail
A German court has sentenced a software dealer to nearly three years in prison for distributing Microsoft Corp. products with forged licenses.
microsoft -
comments -
27.1.2007 Illegal KMS server appears on the Internet
The business launch of Windows Vista is only a few days behind us and already the attempts to pirate Windows Vista are underway.
microsoft -
comments -
4.12.2006 The RIAA Proposes a Deal for Illegal Downloaders
The Recording Industry Association of America plans to launch a campaign that would allow music pirates to settle claims against them at a reduced rate.
common -
comments -
16.2.2007 Russian prosecutors seek jail time for Allofmp3.com owner
Prosecutors in Russia have demanded jail time for the operator of Allofmp3.com, according to published reports.
common -
comments -
24.7.2007 Can owning a Wi-Fi Skype phone land you in jail?
A man in London was arrested for using an open Wi-Fi network from someones unsecured broadband link from a nearby house. Similar arrests have happened in the US and this makes me wonder: Can owning a Wi-Fi Skype phone land you in jail?
common -
comments -
23.8.2007 The Pirate Bay found guilty, jail & $3.6 million fine
The Pirate Bay, notorious for providing BitTorrent files of all things copyrighted and illegal have lost a trial in Sweden today.
common -
comments -
17.4.2009 Over 10 Million Custom XP Downloads Get Chinese Pirates Jail Sentences
Chinese authorities cracked down on a group of four software pirates for offering a custom-built copy of Windows XP, which was downloaded in excess of 10 million times.
windows -
comments -
24.8.2009 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
windows -
comments -
4.12.2007 Microsoft Says Vista SP1 Needs to Speak the Same Language as Vista RTM
Microsoft says that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 needs to speak the same language as the RTM version of the latest Windows client. Otherwise there's no game.
windows -
comments -
2.4.2008 Vista SP1 Microsoft Could Not Have Given Less Vista SP2 Anyone?
Microsoft had the chance to position the first service pack for Windows Vista as a panacea for the operating system, giving the platform nothing less than a fresh start and another take at the Wow.
windows -
comments -
3.10.2007 Microsoft: Vista! Vista! Vista!
Microsoft has a single generalized answer to all life's problems, but especially end user protection, and that answer is of course Windows Vista.
windows -
comments -
14.8.2007 Microsoft isn't done with Vista yet
There is still more work to be done on Windows Vista, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, on the day the company's highly-anticipated operating system is officially released to enterprise customers.
windows -
comments -
2.12.2006 Microsoft boxes up Vista
Although it is still working to finish the code for Windows Vista, Microsoft has reached a decision on which versions of the operating system to offer.
Microsoft has settled on six versions, including an Ultimate edition that will combine the best of the company's corporate and consumer features. The company is aiming to have all of the versions ready for launch in the second half of this year.
windows -
comments -
27.2.2006 Microsoft: Vista won't get a backdoor
Windows Vista won't have a backdoor that could be used by police forces to get into encrypted files, Microsoft has stressed.
In February, a BBC News story suggested that the British government was in discussions with Microsoft over backdoor access to the operating system. A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication to gain access to a computer without to the PC user knowing.
windows -
comments -
5.3.2006 Vista Might be too Complex for Microsoft
It will not have escaped your attention that Microsoft is laboring to finish the next version of its Windows operating system, Vista. A version aimed at the corporate market is supposed to be ready for Christmas, with the consumer edition following some time later (missing the Christmas market, which has irritated computer manufacturers and retailers more than somewhat). Last week, Gartner, a leading IT consultancy, predicted that Microsoft would miss those shipping dates.
windows -
comments -
12.5.2006 Microsoft Vista is still a mess
We've had the pleasure of using Vista since its very early builds. The first release candidate is now upon us, and was made available to download by TechBeta and Technology Adoption Program program subscribers last week.
windows -
comments -
13.9.2006 Windows Vista at Microsoft
Last Friday I took the plunge and upgraded my main work laptop (Sony VGN-TX3XP 11" Ultra-Portable) to Windows Vista RTM.
microsoft -
comments -
10.11.2006 Microsoft to Testers: After Vista, What Next?
Windows Vista isn't even quite out the door, but Microsoft is already soliciting testers to tell them what should be in the next versions of Windows.
windows -
comments -
21.12.2006 Microsoft Vista slow to take off
Windows Vista has been on the market for nearly a month now, but enterprise users and industry experts agree that Microsoft's latest and greatest OS still isn't yet ready to replace XP.
windows -
comments -
3.1.2007 Microsoft: Vista upgrades for everybody
Windows Vista is starting to look like those Persian rug stores which are always having a 'closing down' sale. 'Full' prices are set laughably high only to make you think you're getting an amazing discount, because no-one pays the marked price.
windows -
comments -
27.4.2007 So Where is Microsoft Vista SP1?
The April 25 release of a feature-complete Windows Server "Longhorn" beta is a monumental milestone for Microsoft, perhaps more important than the launch of Windows Vista.
windows -
comments -
1.5.2007 What to do if Microsoft locks you out of Vista?
"What to do if Microsoft locks you out of Vista?" - This is question of lot of our users in last time, so here are some advices.
windows -
comments -
17.8.2007 What Microsoft doesn't want you to know about Vista SP1
Microsoft touts performance and reliability as the key benefits of Vista's SP1, but a close look at the beta shows a significant change Microsoft doesn't seem to want you to know about --- you can now easily change your default desktop search tool to Google Desktop Search, or any another one.
windows -
comments -
2.10.2007 Microsoft Makes Its Own: 32-bit Windows Vista vs. 64-bit Windows Vista
With Windows Vista, Microsoft delivered both the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors concomitantly, a first for the company, whose Windows XP x64 Professional (April, 2005) was launched one year after Windows XP SP2 (August 2005) and four after the initial 32-bit Windows XP (2001).
windows -
comments -
8.1.2008 Microsoft: Windows Vista vs. Windows XP Definitely Vista!
As far as Microsoft is concerned there is only one choice possible in terms of desktop clients. But Windows Vista is also the clear option over Windows XP when it comes down to the Redmond company's preferred operating system for mobile PCs.
windows -
comments -
6.9.2007 Microsoft Vista shuts out other OSes
When Microsoft's Vista arrives on machines, it looks like it may need a trusted platform model (TPM) chip to be present on the system.
That's just one element of what Microsoft dubs "multi tiered data protection", and the firm says that it will support full volume encryption to prevent disk access to files by other operating systems.
microsoft -
comments -
Microsoft Ships Second Vista CTP
As expected, Microsoft has shipped the October Community Technology Preview of Windows Vista, embarking on what the company hopes will be monthly test releases of the operating system. Build 5231 first surfaced last week and brings changes to Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and Vista's networking.
windows -
comments -
Microsoft: No Sidebar Until Vista Beta 2
Testers and developers looking forward to playing with Vista's most prominent new feature over the holidays will have to wait a bit longer. Microsoft officials confirmed to BetaNews late Monday that the Windows Sidebar won't be delivered in a public build until Beta 2.
windows -
comments -
20.12.2005 Microsoft to Skip Vista Beta 2
Redmond is planning to rely more on Community Technology Previews for Windows input, and has two new Vista test builds planned for the next two calendar quarters.
windows -
comments -
28.1.2006AllofMP3 Owner Faces Fines, Jail Time
Russian authorities are
seeking jail time for Denis
Kvasov, the owner of
AllofMP3.com, along with
paying restitution to EMI,
Warner, and Universal...
betanews.com -
25.07.2007Scammers get jail time for Microsoft software scheme
Four people have been sentenced to jail time and tens of millions of dollars in fines for buying discounted Microsoft software and then illegally
reselling it at a profit.
Mirza Ali, 60, and Sameena Ali, 53, the husband-and-wife owners of Samtech Research, were sentenced
Wednesday to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $25 million in fines to Microsoft for their role in a software reselling scheme run
between 1997 and 2001.
The Alis and their associates purchased more than $29 million worth of software at Microsoft's
academic-discount rates and then resold it to nonacademic entities, making more than $5 million in profits. The two were convicted on Nov. 28, 2006,
and had been awaiting sentencing.
winbeta.org -
26.10.2007Illegal KMS server appears on the Internet
The business launch of Windows
Vista is only a few days
behind us and already the
attempts to pirate Windows
Vista are underway. Recently
I stumbled on news of a rogue
KMS servers that has appeared
on the internet with
information on how to activate
a copy of Windows Vista VL
against the server. Once
activated your illegal copy of
Windows Vista will be good for
180 days before it needs to
talk to the KMS server
again.
KMS, which
stands for
Key
Management Service, is
part of the Volume Activation
2.0 scheme to protect Windows
Vista and Longhorn Server from
piracy. As part of your
license agreement with
Microsoft you agree to not
bring up a KMS server on the
public internet. This server
is a clear violation of that
agreement, which I doubt they
had.
neowin.net -
05.12.2006Lawmakers Examine Tech Solutions to Illegal File Sharing
Congress today turned
its attention again -- to
illegal peer-to-peer (P2P)
file sharing on college
campuses, an issue that has
already prompted a March
Judiciary Committee hearing
and numerous other hearings
over the past few years.
Tuesday afternoon, the
House Science Committee took
its turn, focusing on the
effectiveness of technologies
used to sniff out the illegal
files flowing over college and
university networks. The
reviews were mixed.
"In today's digital
world, we generally rely on
technology to combat illegal
activities," said Science
Committee Chairman Bart Gordon
(D-TN). "Do these
technologies stop all illegal
activities? Of course not. But
they do prevent the bulk of
bad things from happening." ..
winbeta.org -
06.06.2007WTO Calls US Online Gambling Ban 'Illegal'
The World Trade Organization
is pushing back against
Internet gambling restrictions
passed by United States,
saying Friday it had ruled
that the provision was
illegal. The US will have the
option to appeal...
betanews.com -
31.03.2007The Pirate Bay found guilty, jail & $3.6 million fine
The Pirate Bay, notorious for providing BitTorrent files of all things copyrighted and illegal have lost a trial in Sweden today. The news first
surfaced from founder Peter Sunde who used Twitter to break the news. Sunde said ""according to leaked information from the court we lost (got the
news last night). Trustworthy source as well." Sunde is also insisting "nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing what so ever.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
17.04.2009Illegal downloading on downward track among US youth: survey
Illegal downloading of
songs, software and other
copyrighted materials from the
Internet among US youth has
dropped sharply in the past
three years, a survey showed
Tuesday.
The
Business Software Alliance
said its survey showed the
percentage of young people
between the ages of eight and
18 who acknowledged illegal
downloads of software, music,
movies or games fell from 60
percent in 2004 to 36 percent
in 2007. In 2006 the figure
was 43 percent.
The
survey found the reasons for
not making illegal copies was
fear of accidentally
downloading a computer virus
(62 percent), getting into
legal trouble (52 percent) and
downloading spyware (51
percent)...
winbeta.org -
22.05.2007MPs want UK jail time for hacker
Mr McKinnon faces extradition to the US for breaking into American military networks between February 2001 and March 2002. He trespassed on networks
owned by Nasa, the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense. If tried and convicted in a US court, Mr McKinnon could face decades of jail
time, and millions of dollars in fines.
Despite taking his appeal to the House of Lords, Mr McKinnon lost a six-year legal battle to avoid
extradition. The European Court of Human Rights also declined to back Mr McKinnon's case against extradition.
Mr McKinnon is currently
awaiting a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith as to when the extradition process will begin. In the interim, 20 UK MPs have signed an Early Day
Motion which calls for any sentence imposed by a US court to be served in a British jail.
neowin.net -
05.11.2008Quarter of British government databases are illegal
A quarter of all databases created and used by the British government are illegal, and should be scrapped or redesigned, according to a report from
the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, which "funds political campaigns in the UK to promote democratic reform, civil
liberties and social justice", examined 46 public sector systems and found that 11 were "almost certainly" illegal under human rights or data
protection laws. These 11 systems include the national DNA database and ContactPoint, an index of biographical and contact information for all
children designed to aid child protection.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
23.03.2009Vista, Word and Google Desktop circumvent TrueCrypt function
Cryptography expert
Bruce Schneier, in conjunction with a research group, has studied the
security of TrueCrypt, to see whether it meets the specifications for a
'Deniable File System' (DFS) implemented in TrueCrypt as hidden volumes and is really able to conceal the existence of a
volume within a standard system environment.
Hidden volumes are intended to conceal even the existence of encrypted files. It
allows a PC owner to deny having specific encrypted data on his PC. Even where a suspect in a police investigation reveals the key to an outer
container in order to avoid a jail term, he or she can still deny the existence of a concealed inner container. This is known as
deniable encryption. For the authorities, the only solution to this
would be to make the private use of encryption itself illegal.
winbeta.org -
17.07.2008Illegal File Sharing Drops
Post Grokster
According to research firm NPD
Group, illegal peer-to-peer
file sharing has dropped for
the first time since the RIAA
began its legal assault in
2003. Since that initial
victory, P2P usage has only
gone up -- until the June U.S.
Supreme Court ruling against
Grokster...
betanews.com -
15.12.2005Judge Rules Movie Sanitizing
Illegal
The process of "movie
sanitizing," where
objectionable content is
edited out, was ruled illegal
over the weekend. A federal
court judge said copyright
holders have a right to
control the content of their
work...
betanews.com -
10.07.2006First Person in U.S. Convicted for Spam E-mailing
Jeffery Goodin from Los
Angeles is the first person in
the U.S. to be criminally
convicted of spam e-mailing.
At 45 years of age, Goodin was
found guilty of sending
millions of e-mails that
fooled users into giving out
personal information. He was
convicted under the 2003
CAN-SPAM Act, which makes it
illegal for marketers to send
out false or misleading
information to users.
Goodin is being
convicted of spam, and ten
other counts that include wire
fraud and unauthorized access
to AOL accounts and company
trademarks for illegal
purposes. Prosecutors provided
evidence to a jury that Goodin
also compromised AOL accounts
in order to make it appear as
if the e-mails were being sent
from AOL's billing
department. The e-mails told
users that if they did not
update their information via a
website, their accounts would
be closed.
Jeffery
Goodin is to be sentenced on
June 11th of 2007 and faces up
to 101 years in prison.
Refresh my memory; how many
years of jail-time does a
murderer receive?
neowin.net -
20.01.200790% of music downloads illegal
The music industry has said that while it has started making money from music downloading, more than 90 percent of downloaded music is illegal. The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, said record companies' revenue from digital music sales rose 40 per cent to
US$2.9 billion over the past year. This growth is not covering losses from collapse of international CD sales, the music industry's global
trade body said.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
27.01.2008China Deports American DVD
Pirate
Convicted man sent home early
after serving five months of a
two-and-a-half-year jail
sentence...
pcworld.com -
01.10.2005Microsoft Applauds Strong Piracy Conviction
Microsoft applauded a federal
court's decision Thursday to
jail a man convicted of
hawking faked certificates of
authenticity for the
company's software. Justin
Harrison was sentenced to 46
months in prison for selling
fake COAs...
betanews.com -
09.08.2007Microsoft: The Advantages of using illegal software
Microsoft has committed large
resources into educating
people on the illegal use of
software and how it harms the
industry since the launch of
Windows 95. But a member over
at
Bink.nu
has spotted an error with the
latest update for the Windows
Genuine Advantage Tool on
Dutch versions of Windows XP,
it comes with a significant
typo that could be
taken the wrong way.
As the
pic
shows for our Dutch
readers it says "Laat mij
enkele voordelen zien van het
gebruik van illegal software
als ik op voltooien klik"
which when translated to
English reads "Shows me some
advantages of using
illegal software when I
click Finish" The link points
to
the Windows
Genuine Advantage site
which does anything but
endorse the use of illegal
software, doh!
Someone's having a laugh!
Granted typos happen but one
as significant as this will
probably prompt an
immediate/within a day or two
update from Microsoft to
rectify the error.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
22.02.2007Did Yahoo Help Send a Chinese
Journalist to Jail?
Group says the company gave
the Chinese government access
to the journalist's e-mail...
pcworld.com -
07.09.2005Dealer of Forged Microsoft Licenses goes to Jail
A German court has sentenced a
42-year-old Turkish software
dealer to two years and 11
months in prison for
distributing Microsoft Corp.
products with forged licenses.
The man was arrested in June
2006 by German police and had
been held in custody until the
court ruling. After eight days
of hearings, the district
court in Bochum, Germany,
found the Turkish dealer
guilty of reselling 18,555
products with forged licenses
to other dealers ignorant of
the illegal activity.
Microsoft estimates the loss
of the forged licenses at
$5.2 million, including
the money paid by customers
who acquired software they
were unable to use.
neowin.net -
27.01.2007RIAA is using illegal evidence, says Harvard Law professor
The ever so popular group, the RIAA, is about to be handed a class action lawsuit for those who have been sued, settled, or fined by the organization
for copyright infringement. How is all of this going to happen? An ingenious lawyer discovered that the RIAA has been illegally threatening people
using voided copyright registrations. Kiwi Camara (who was the youngest person to ever enroll at Harvard Law School) is joining forces with a
Harvard Law professor to take on the RIAA and get back the "$100 million that they stole" from its illegal proceedings. The RIAA has refuted
the $100 million claim by saying it is "inaccurate" and that they have actually been losing money on each case.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
10.06.2009
