Sarcasm can be a powerful tool, and a
Microsoft executive recently wielded it against industry sources who claim that
a loophole exists in one of the software giant's licensing policies. In a
scathing blog post last week, Eric Ligman, Microsoft's senior manager of
community engagement for small business in the U.S., took aim at reports that
Microsoft is giving users the option of buying the Vista SP1 upgrade edition and
installing it on any PC, which allows them to avoid paying more than $100 for
the more expensive 'full' edition of Vista.
In an
article that appeared earlier this month in the Windows Secrets newsletter,
Associate Editor Scott Dunn suggested that Microsoft's failure to close this
loophole in Vista SP1 suggests that the vendor approved the back door in order
to make Vista more appealing to sophisticated buyers.
But according to Ligman, "the fact that there are people writing articles
advising people to illegally install software that they are not licensed for
'because they can get it to physically install' just shows how clueless some
people are and how willing they are to share that with others. "If you are one
of those people, let me put it this way, 'It is not OK to do so. It is BAD to do
so.' There, no words bigger than three letters, so that should hopefully be easy
enough to follow," Ligman wrote. Windows Secrets' Dunn couldn't be reached for
comment.