Office pirates beware: Microsoft about to put in the boot

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 29 October 2006 21:02

Your IT - Entertainment

Or should that be Microsoft beware: some of your users are about to jump ship to a free Office alternative, whether the next version of Office is 10 years ahead of the competition, or not.

An online report confirms that Microsoft’s ‘Windows Genuine Advantage’ program for Microsoft Office, creatively titled the ‘Office Genuine Advantage’ program or OGA, has already been in beta-testing for several months. It’s now about to be switched on for all, with no choice to ‘opt out’ of the validation process as there has been during the beta testing phase.

As of October 27 last week, anyone using a pirated version of Office will no longer be able to download Office templates or other Office downloads. From January 2007, pirated Office users will no longer be able to check for and download Office updates.

Should a Service Pack 3 become available for Office 2003, or other security updates for Office 2003 and earlier, still supported versions, your copy of Office will be checked for authenticity before the download will begin.

If you’re not legal, you won’t be able to update Office, and will have to run the risk that documents you receive from others don’t contain threats that could damage your system.

Microsoft is implementing this program thanks to the widespread availability of the Internet and broadband. They can finally check whether your copy is genuine or not, with more and more software companies are following their lead.

What does Microsoft expect you to do? Why, buy Office legally, of course – whether the existing Office 2003, or preferably, from Microsoft’s point of view, the upcoming Office 2007, due to be released in the next few weeks. Home users will likely be able to take advantage of a special ‘home’ version of Office that will allow you to legally install it on up to three computers, as is the case with the ‘Student and Teacher’ edition of Office 2003.

The cost of this special educational version is approximately AUD $150 and is available, without any particular checks for educational credentials (which are probably supposed to be carried out) from major retail stores in Australia.

The catch? It’s strictly for non-commercial uses only. Kids writing reports for school, or writing letters at home to friends, that kind of thing. And while you might be able to buy it and use it for business purposes in your Office, you won’t be doing it legally. The 2003 version also omits some of the main Office programs, only giving you Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.