>>It is how they are doing it that is the problem. They almost encouraged (at the least they were VERY laxed in enforcement) WinXX pirating 10 years ago as a way of increasing market share for their other products.
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>I'm not sure what you mean by how they are doing it. You mean going from loosely enforced to strictly enforced? How else should they do it? Kindof go halfway? Loose money purposely when they have a plan to prevent it? I wouldn't, and I don't blame MS for doing it.

Despite MS's promotion of a German site claiming that the registration wizard is benign, there are already too many beta testers reporting horror stories. The most fameous being the guy whose XP on his laptop suddenly disabled while he was using Word at 30,000 feet on flight to a business meeting. THen there are the stories coming out of Austrialia, where MS tested the wizard.

They may get the bugs worked out, but when ever you change your hardware configuration (upgrade, repairs, etc...) there is a strong possibility you will have to convince some clerk in Redmond that you aren't a pirate but are merely trying to get your legal copy of running again.

Nebraska Dept of Revenue