Microsoft wins product activation suit
WinInfo | at | by Mike
Microsoft has won an antipiracy lawsuit in which the software giant was charged with infringing on a software patent for detecting pirated software. Lawyers for an individual named Kenneth Nash said that Microsoft's Product Activation feature infringed on Nash's patent, which describes a method for detecting pirated software via unique identifiers called activation keys. Microsoft had argued that the system it used in Product Activation was "fundamentally different" from Nash's approach, presumably because Microsoft's version is so well liked that it turned into a marketing program called "Windows Genuine Advantage" that has been widely trumpeted as the most-beloved aspect of using Windows. Now that Windows Genuine Advantage has been cleared of all charges, we can look forward to using a hugely enhanced version in Windows Vista. And you thought Vista was going to be a disappointment.