S ounds too good to be true? Well it is, kind of. What if I told you that you could purchase an illegal copy of the latest version of the Windows Operating System for $8 with a unique serial number?

Microsoft have been cutting down on piracy which has included some controversial changes such as removing VLK licenses and replacing them with a KMS Activation Server. Also their WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) system has cut down the amount of pirated users as it will eventually lock out your system so that you can pretty much pay or lose your Operating System access.

However, crackers have found a way to generate unique serial numbers and can therefore sell the OS at a very cheap price.

The copied version of Vista is presently presented by an Iranian software company and provides the possibility for its owner to have a private “Serial Number” and thus, to “legalize!” his cracked Windows copy; TaliyaNews

However what will this affect legitimate users? What would happen if say, the piraters generate a code that’s an exact match to yours?

I just hope they don’t cause problems for people who pay for legit versions. Would piss me off if some free loader had my serial ; Sirikan - Whirlpool User

Sirikan says it all. How would you feel forking out an enormous $700 to go home, install and then get plastered with “NOT GENUINE”. This is something I sincerely hope Microsoft will have a think about.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Tech News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.