We all know about Microsoft's WGA initiative that started last July. Most of us were troubled to learn that the WGA has been 'phoning home' (how-to remove) to Microsoft at every boot. Well, get ready, because eventually Microsoft may be turning off copies of Windows without WGA installed. According to a Microsoft technician, 'in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and when the 30 days is up and WGA isn't installed, Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now.' A new version of WGA was released on Tuesday and, at least for the time being, Windows users have the option of removing WGA from their systems.

WTF. The people who _knowingly_ run illegal copies of Windows won't be affected by this in the slightest. These people have been cracking WGA since it came out, first with Javascript, then later with cracked DLL's. I'm sure there will be a crack for this within 24 hours of it being released, and these people will able to get it very easily. The only people that this will affect are a) People who think they have a legal copy of Windows but really don't because whoever they bought it from screwed them, and b) People with legal copies who either don't want to run WGA for some reason, or c) People with legal copies who run WGA and it mistakenly identifies their machine as "not legit". In short, the "pirates" will continue on unaffected as they always have, while the "legitimate" users will get screwed.

In other news, a Los Angeles PC user has filed suit against Microsoft, claiming Windows Genuine Advantage is spyware. The lead lawyer for the case was the lead counsel in the Sony rootkit spyware case. The plaintiff in the Genuine Advantage case is hoping for class action status.