Windows 7 Master OEM Key Leaked?

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I can't imagine anyone but pirates considering this "great if true" because it just hurts everyone in the long run (sorry if you can't see the big BIG picture, but it does).

Windows 7 is worth every cent, more so than any other OS Microsoft has ever created. If you can't see that or understand it, there's always Linux...
 
the day i pay for software....lol

M$ might have leaked this. A Guerrilla marketing attack vs apple...
 
Joe Average said:
I can't imagine anyone but pirates considering this "great if true" because it just hurts everyone in the long run (sorry if you can't see the big BIG picture, but it does).

Windows 7 is worth every cent, more so than any other OS Microsoft has ever created. If you can't see that or understand it, there's always Linux...
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I can't even begin to tell you how ridiculous that is. Do you remember the activation server outage fiasco with Vista? Imagine that on a really large scale. MS by themselves can bring the world to a near stand still because users like you roll over and accept anything a company does.

More than that, it just proves it's a major waste of time from implementation since it doesn't work and is circumvented.

I will pay for ONE copy of 7.
 
No, what it proves is that human beings are lowlife scum-sucking pieces of shit, some more than others. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it should be done. Hell, if that were the case, I'd be walking out of a casino here in Vegas with wads of cash just because it's possible...

Your attempt at logic fails, and there is nothing "great if true" about this, period.
 
Using this crack isn't as strait forward as inputing a OEM key on install. I don't expect this to be a widespread problem.
 
Joe Average said:
No, what it proves is that human beings are lowlife scum-sucking pieces of shit, some more than others. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it should be done. Hell, if that were the case, I'd be walking out of a casino here in Vegas with wads of cash just because it's possible...

Your attempt at logic fails, and there is nothing "great if true" about this, period.
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Right because profit sucking companies responsible for happy shareholders are always looking out for our best interests. I'm not even going to argue this. Activation is flat out wrong.
 
Remember folks, MS makes the VAST majority of its money on Windows not on retail copies, but on copies preinstalled on machines from large scale OEMS like HP, Dell, etc who aren't likely to sell pirated versions lest they be sued back to 18th Century. Microsoft has NEVER been that intrested in COMPLETELY stoping pirated versions of Windows, in fact to some degree a pirated versions of Windows are better for Microsoft than Linux. I'm not condoning piracy I'm just saying that its far more important that Windows have wide distribution than for Microsoft to shut off piracy completely.

Windows greatest anti-piracy feature is that its on machines before users even tough them. No other piece of software on the planet comes any close by a factor of 10.
 
Shotglass01 said:
Right because profit sucking companies responsible for happy shareholders are always looking out for our best interests. I'm not even going to argue this. Activation is flat out wrong.
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I always find this kind of statement intresting. If you have a 401k, guess what, you're a shareholder. So you want the companies in your portfolio to lose money?:confused:

If companies are profit sucking, then people are thieves. People work at those profit sucking companies.
 
heatlesssun said:
Remember folks, MS makes the VAST majority of its money on Windows not on retail copies, but on copies preinstalled on machines from large scale OEMS like HP, Dell, etc who aren't likely to sell pirated versions lest they be sued back to 18th Century. Microsoft has NEVER been that intrested in COMPLETELY stoping pirated versions of Windows, in fact to some degree a pirated versions of Windows are better for Microsoft than Linux. I'm not condoning piracy I'm just saying that its far more important that Windows have wide distribution than for Microsoft to shut off piracy completely.

Windows greatest anti-piracy feature is that its on machines before users even tough them. No other piece of software on the planet comes any close by a factor of 10.
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Exactly, if MS really wanted to stop pirated versions of windows from working, they COULD easily do it, they choose not to, they would rather windows be running on your system then some other OS>
 
Shotglass01 said:
Right because profit sucking companies responsible for happy shareholders are always looking out for our best interests. I'm not even going to argue this. Activation is flat out wrong.
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That is easily one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

Go create something..music, software, anything. Have millions of dollars stolen from you and you come back and tell us that doesn't piss you off and make you want to do something to stop it the best you can.
 
Vermillion said:
That is easily one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

Go create something..music, software, anything. Have millions of dollars stolen from you and you come back and tell us that doesn't piss you off and make you want to do something to stop it the best you can.
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Amem! Piracy is a victimless crime until you're the victim!:mad:
 
Mmmmm crying about piracy; your tears sustain me.

(Not saying that I pirate but I do enjoy watching people whine about it)
 
FoxhoundOp said:
Mmmmm crying about piracy; your tears sustain me.

(Not saying that I pirate but I do enjoy watching people whine about it)
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Not crying about it one bit. Just stating that I've never met a pirate that didn't lock up their house and car!:p
 
Joe Average said:
No, what it proves is that human beings are lowlife scum-sucking pieces of shit, some more than others. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it should be done. Hell, if that were the case, I'd be walking out of a casino here in Vegas with wads of cash just because it's possible...

Your attempt at logic fails, and there is nothing "great if true" about this, period.
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+1 .
 
We have a lowlife contractor working in our dept. He's running a pirated OS and pirated music creating/mixing program on his home setup.
He can't get online and his computer is slow as a slug according to him.

I told him that's one of the many benefits of stealing software. :D
 
It;s just like parking your car unlocked in the Bronx, it just doesn't happen ;_;

Can't say i blame people getting a freebie Windows 7 now that it was made easily available :p thx.
 
I think posters here are really missing the point. Activation doesn't stop piracy, and this leak isn't about piracy.

To quote Mr. Minasi, whom many of you probably have heard of, his latest newsletter (on the pros and cons of upgrading to 7 or not):
http://www.minasi.com/newsletters/nws0907.htm

"No operating system is worth having to deal with Microsoft's product activation nonsense. I can't say that I disagree, but I'm afraid the horse is already out of the barn on this issue. When XP first came out, I saw its product activation for what it was: a pain in the butt for Windows users that not one XP buyer on the planet wanted, but that Microsoft forced down our throats simply because they could... ain't monopolies grand? I wrote a number of columns about it, noting that Microsoft's forcing of home users and small businesses to deal with the irritations of product activation while letting their volume customers slide on the matter was an obvious camel's-nose-under-the-tent ploy, and that large customers should make clear that any OS with this sort of barrier to its usage was completely unacceptable. But with more than eight years gone by and zillions of retail copies of XP sold, that ship has sailed: unless Linux and/or the Mac grab a 50 percent market share in the next couple of years, Microsoft's never leaving product activation behind."

I just can't believe MS has so many pigeons in the house. I don't know if I want to drink from the same fantasy fountain as many of you here seem to do or poison it.
 
Shotglass01 said:
I think posters here are really missing the point. Activation doesn't stop piracy, and this leak isn't about piracy.
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Activation wasn't meant to stop piracy. It was meant to stop casual copying, just enough to stop those who thought it was okay to install one Windows copy multiple times and were willing to buy it. It was NEVER meant to stop people who are hell bent on piracy. And several of us have already said that Microsoft actually doesn't make that much money on retail Windows copies, its all about the preinstalls and Microsoft just accepts a certain amount of piracy as part of doing business. If you look at it that way activation actually is a very decent idea.

As long as Windows is mainly distributed on new computers and remains the most valuable piece of PC software on the planet activation works better than many think.
 
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heatlesssun said:
Activation wasn't meant to stop piracy. It was meant to stop casual copying, just enough to stop those who thought it was okay to install one Windows copy multiple times and were willing to buy it. It was NEVER meant to stop people who are hell bent on piracy. And several of us have already said that Microsoft actually doesn't make that much money on retail Windows copies, its all about the preinstalls and Microsoft just accepts a certain amount of piracy as part of doing business. If you look at it that way activation actually is a very decent idea.

As long as Windows is mainly distributed on new computers and remains the most valuable piece of PC software on the planet activation works better than many think.
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This ^

Nothing can stop those who want to be cheap ass bastards.

Seriously though what's so bad about activation? When you install you get between 3 and 30 days to activate and then you can even rearm that. Activation takes 6 minutes over the phone and takes about 15 second online. Hell it can activate for you during installation so you don't have to do a damn thing!

So seriously what's the issue?
 
heatlesssun said:
Activation wasn't meant to stop piracy. It was meant to stop casual copying, just enough to stop those who thought it was okay to install one Windows copy multiple times and were willing to buy it. It was NEVER meant to stop people who are hell bent on piracy. And several of us have already said that Microsoft actually doesn't make that much money on retail Windows copies, its all about the preinstalls and Microsoft just accepts a certain amount of piracy as part of doing business. If you look at it that way activation actually is a very decent idea.

As long as Windows is mainly distributed on new computers and remains the most valuable piece of PC software on the planet activation works better than many think.
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this +1
 
bigdogchris said:
Microsoft has said that even pirates deserve Windows security updates.
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They probably think at least they don't have the competitions software installed. They know they'll make some kind of money some how by software and such.
 
Shotglass01 said:
Right because profit sucking companies responsible for happy shareholders are always looking out for our best interests. I'm not even going to argue this. Activation is flat out wrong.
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Nice to know that values like honesty, integrity and NOT taking what does not belong to you apparently don't count for anything anymore. :rolleyes:

Microsoft owns Windows, you don't. If they want you to have to activate you have to activate, period. How is it wrong? just because it inconvienences you? I hate activation as much as the next person but come on, it is just one of those things that you have to do. Unless of course you're a scum sucking little maggot thief that pirates software.

Last time I checked businesses are in business to... gasp ! make money and because you think they charge too much they're profit sucking companies.....

I'm so fucking sick to death of the fucking whiners that think they are entitled to everything and anything.

I was brought up to believe that if you want something you work for it. You don't take what does not belong to you, period. There is NO justification for stealing. If you don't like a product, guess what ? you don't have to use it.

sorry, end rant.:D
 
Activation absolutely sucks. It's a pain in the ass and its effectiveness is questionable. But there is one that that is worse than activation.

STEALING!

I hate how people feel they are entitled to a software program. Windows is not a vital need. You can live a perfectly happy, full, and long life without ever using a PC. Most people, work for these "greedy corporations" as you call it. Stealing software hurts them. Also, you're hurting me by stealing Win 7. I own some MS stock, if their value goes down, you are taking money out of my daughters college fund. Normal everyday people are affected by piracy. I wish people would grow up.

I fully support consumer rights, and believe most forms of DRM and copy protection are a sham and should be gotten rid of. But I also think pirates are the scum of the earth. If you dont like activation, its very simple. Dont use Windows 7.

If everyone who pirated Windows cause they have a "moral" problem with MS, picked up a free copy of linux instead, you'd see A LOT more software options for Linux and the OS would be much more mainstream. Don't justify being a criminal with a fake moral crusade. MS is fully entitled to do business as they wish, and you are fully entitled to not buy their product and use an alternative, some of which are 100% free.
 
Joe Average said:
No, what it proves is that human beings are lowlife scum-sucking pieces of shit, some more than others. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it should be done. Hell, if that were the case, I'd be walking out of a casino here in Vegas with wads of cash just because it's possible...

Your attempt at logic fails, and there is nothing "great if true" about this, period.
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Ummm... It is possible to walk out of a casino in Vegas with wads of cash. Sure your odds are horrible, but it has happened.

On a side note, I've got TechNet. So I'm not concerned about this key. But I will say this.. I did NOT pay for any copy of Vista.
 
The article is misleading and most of the comments are missing the point. The OEM activation of Windows 7 is a minor evolution of the OEM activation of Vista. (Note that the OEM activation of Vista was itself an evolution of the OEM XP activation.)

First, the reason for OEM activation: the OEMs did not want to inconvenience their customers with the hassle of needing to activate their new computers, so they worked with Microsoft to create a system where the OS would be automatically activated if it met certain conditions.

These conditions in Vista/7 are:
1. A specific code in the BIOS of the machine that identifies it as coming from an approved OEM (Dell, HP, Asus, etc). This is called the SLIC table.
2. A corresponding certificate must be installed in the OS. The BIOS table and the software certificate (an xml file actually) must "match up" - i.e. be from the same OEM.
3. A corresponding serial number.

If a machine has all three, then it is automatically activated. The article is misleads in that it implies that all that is necessary if the "master key" to activate any Windows 7 installation while the reality is that the key is only one of three components of OEM activation.

Going off the inaccurate information in the article many are jumping to the conclusion that Microsoft will/should revoke the key. I'll try to explain why this won't happen but for this we need to dig a little deeper into how Vista OEM activation works. Since Windows 7 OEM activation is only a very minor evolution over Vista's, this will shed light on how I assume it will work in Windows 7.

To facilitate the Vista OEM activations on their PCs, every OEM is provided with a unique BIOS SLIC table and a unique certificate file. The OEM keys are where things got interesting; the OEMs were each provided with several unique keys for the Home Basic, Home Premium, and Business editions of Vista as those were the versions that they would be selling the most of. Since the OEMs only very rarely installed the Ultimate edition on their PCs, only one key was provided for all OEMs to share . This could be considered the "master key".

The reason I think that this "leak" won't matter is that it would have happened when OEMs started shipping Windows 7 PCs in October. That is exactly what happened with Vista; just this time around people knew what to expect.

There exist multiple free tools online that will extract your Windows key for you; same for extracting an OEM certificate from a OEM activated Windows install. That yields 2 of the 3 needed components. The hard part is getting the necessary SLIC table into your BIOS.

This was accomplished by one of two methods: by having software emulate the necessary BIOS or by embedding the SLIC table into the native BIOS. The first method was quickly discovered and disabled by Microsoft while the second is virtually impossible to detect - but is more risky as you run the risk of bricking your hardware with either a bad BIOS flash or an improperly modified BIOS.

For these reasons I believe that Microsoft will not be changing the "master key" but will continue to crack down on the software BIOS emulation schemes.
 
^^^++

It's not a big deal. Once OEM sample Win7 systems are in the open (or even just at a manufacturing plant) it's trivial to get the OEM keys.
 
well, the keys are for oem comps. and you can make any comp look like their from oem though a bios mod or a loader before windows.

the loader method could get detected the bios mod which is more risky will set you not have to worry about updates at all.
 
This is the same thing as those tags hidden in items at stores. There's a point after which the money spent on each production item to prevent piracy begins to exceed the amount of money earned from the sale of that item. Diminishing marginal returns sets in. Thus, while we may complain about activation, there could be far worse things Microsoft could come up with. I mean, if Microsoft really wanted to be strict about things, they could refuse another activation as soon as ANY hardware changed, since all OEM software is locked to the hardware it ships with as per the End User License Agreement.

This also gets into the question of whether "one pirated copy" does indeed equal "one lost sale." I tend to argue that the only real answer is one pirated copy does not guarantee one lost sale. It might, but it might not. Think about the reason people run ripped copies of things: because it's cheaper! Thus, if we imagine a world where piracy is impossible (just like frictionless physics, bear with me) these people would just do without. With the people who will go so far as to equip their computers with modified BIOS code to use OEM activation, I don't think that those people would ever buy anything. But at the same time, using such code is a highly technical process, much more than "casual copying." Thus, such individuals probably represent a very small faction among pirates in general and are only worth so much effort on Microsoft's part to stamp out.

You could get the theft at your brick and mortar store to zero, but it would be very costly. The law of diminishing marginal returns to theft prevention strikes again! In the same way Microsoft knows that a certain amount of piracy is to be tolerated because it's costlier to prevent than it would be worth. Microsoft's executives have even issued a statement that basically said "if you're going to pirate, please steal our stuff, not anyone else's." Why? Some of these people who start out illegal go legit later. For example, it is (I think) technically illegal for Junior to install Dad's work-issued Microsoft Office when he goes off to college, but I know of innumerable people at my University who got their software in just this fashion. However, when Microsoft realized students would buy, just at a much lower price, the Ultimate Steal was born. And it worked very well. A $700 piece of software for $60 just because I have an .EDU email and am taking at least 0.5 credits of courses? You'd have to be stupid not to jump on that, since I don't think the vast majority of college students are covered by MSDNAA. Some schools have super-low-price Microsoft software (basically price-of-media), but at least in my experience, my friends who got that were both at large schools and majoring in computer science or a similar field. Other non-CS students did not get that pricing.

I'm not going to say what software, but I have in the past been known to "ARRRRRRRRRRR" on certain products. The more I used them, however, the more I came to value them. I have licenses for all of these items now.

I also wonder how one logically justifies activation of operating systems on the basis that it deters casual copying, since no one here is arguing for DRM on CDs. Plenty of "casual copying" goes on with MP3 files and compact disks, but it's a rare voice here that will stick up for media DRM to prevent "casual copying." I'd like to know what justifies one (activation) but not the other (music DRM). I'm just curious as to the thought process here. I'm not encouraging piracy (since there are some out there who think that questioning the rationale for any intellectual property protection is equal to supporting piracy, which it is not), just wondering.
 
This thread is full of piracy talk and at least one admission. I am closing to limit the amount of babysitting this thread needs.
 
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