Microsoft to Launch Anti-Piracy Initiative

In 2005, Microsoft Corp. plans to enhance its anti-piracy engineering, education and enforcement efforts by expanding the Windows® Genuine Advantage program.

"Software piracy costs customers, software vendors and national economies billions of dollars every year. The best way to fight software piracy is to ensure that users recognize and receive all the benefits of genuine software," said Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client Business at Microsoft.

Windows Genuine Advantage checks the authenticity of a user's software and provides access to popular software and other benefits, helping consumers and businesses ensure that they are receiving the greater reliability, faster access to updates, and richer user experiences offered by genuine Windows XP software.

Every year, millions of consumers and businesses worldwide are hurt by counterfeit software that they have purchased unwittingly, and many companies that sell legitimate software have difficulty competing with the artificially low prices offered by software counterfeiters. Counterfeit software puts users at risk of receiving an inferior product that may present security risks, be missing code or contain malicious code.

Introduced as an optional pilot program to users of English-language versions of Windows in September 2004, Windows Genuine Advantage already helps protect millions of Windows users from an inferior computing experience, viruses and other vulnerabilities that can result from counterfeit software. According to the Business Software Alliance Global Software Piracy Study, conducted by International Data Corp. and released in July 2004, 36 percent of the software installed on computers worldwide was pirated in 2003.

To further combat software piracy, Microsoft is working with partners to change how some Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) are matched during activation, because a significant number of COAs are stolen each year from reputable computer makers and resold as new.

This change will help protect consumers from being victimized by pirates and give them confidence that they are receiving what they paid for. It also will help Microsoft's partners protect their investments in Windows.