MS gets an 'A' for effort.

March 14, 2001 8:09 AM

MS gets an 'A' for effort. Office XP, built with the draconian 'product activation' feature to prevent piracy, has been leaked to USENET. This version does not require an activation key, and the serial number has already been sewn into the installation.
posted by Dirjy (14 comments total)

Oh, and by the way... this sentence really cracked me up:

After he stopped laughing at the news, Gartner Group analyst Chris Le Tocq pointed out that the most likely source for the leak is within the company.
posted by Dirjy at 8:10 AM on March 14, 2001

The most impressive feature I've heard about in the new version is the ability to turn that damned paperclip off!
posted by harmful at 8:20 AM on March 14, 2001

You can turn that sinister little thing off in O2K. If he's on, do (for example) [Help](Microsoft Word Help]. Paperclip will appear with an "options" button. Click on options, then uncheck "Use the office assistant". Too bad you can't chop out the useless code from the apps themselves, too.
posted by jfuller at 8:35 AM on March 14, 2001

That's news? Mac Office has had that since 98. ;) But seriously, I guess this just goes to show that anything can and will be cracked.
posted by darukaru at 8:35 AM on March 14, 2001

It doesn't matter: if you're a technician or admin you'll encounter THAT FUCKING PAPER CLIP every other day, because you're always working with a different computer ... or a fresh NT/2K profile on that machine, defaults set ON. Pfui.

Anyway, once again, the copy-protection scheme stops the pirates in their tracks for about half an hour, and inflicts endless pain on implementers. *sigh* Lotus 1-2-3 "track 0" diskettes, anyone?
posted by dhartung at 8:50 AM on March 14, 2001

i work at a university and first encountered this annoying new forced registration system with their academic versions of office, access and word. since i am always having to switch co-workers' computers, hardware and software i immediately saw how cumbersome this would become in my day-to-day activities. luckily, there's a crack available that updates the .dll file (not that i'd ever use anything like that).
posted by cheesebot at 8:55 AM on March 14, 2001

The news I read was not that you can turn the paperclip off (which, as mentioned, you could always do), but that the paperclip is off BY DEFAULT. So you don't need to turn it off. Yay! This was mentioned in NY Times article I linked to last month about the closing of a typewriter store. If it's still accessible here's the article link. They quote the Microsoft Product Manager as saying the Office Assistant in XP will be "off by default, so you have to make the effort to turn it on."
posted by girlhacker at 11:55 AM on March 14, 2001

The most impressive feature I've heard about in the new version is the ability to turn that damned paperclip off!

That capability has always been present, although it isn't the default and you have to try really hard. However, some users apparently really enjoy the Office Assistant... don't ask me why.

I think MS will find that tougher copy-protection schemes only discourage businesses and institutions (their biggest customers... and the places where such a scheme causes the biggest headaches) from upgrading to XP or beyond. The sales losses will be much more painful than any supposed loss to piracy (which is inherently overstated, in any case), and MS's shareholders will eventually push for a change.
posted by daveadams at 12:07 PM on March 14, 2001

some users apparently really enjoy the Office Assistant...

Well, as we've seen before, people are strange.
posted by jpoulos at 1:28 PM on March 14, 2001

One, you can really disable the paperclip by just not installing "Office Assistants" when you install any relevant version of Office.

Two, the most interesting quote for me was this: "Gartner Group analyst Chris Le Tocq pointed out that the most likely source for the leak is within the company. "That's a bigger issue than the software itself being out," he said. "

To which the answer is, it depends. Given that Microsoft has always tacitly encouraged priacy to gain market share, the implication of an in-house leak is that MS is doing the whole anti-piracy thing just for show, because that's the shibboleth of the industry (despite the fact that non-copy-protected products have always outsold copy-protected ones -- which is how Excel ground 1-2-3 into the dust in the first place, but never mind).

So it seems the whole anti-piracy thing is just a Potemkin village to show DoJ regulators, probably.

posted by aurelian at 3:05 PM on March 14, 2001

More than likely, the "MS Select" editions of these products will have the protection disabled. Cheesebot: have your university look into that, it's a great deal :)
posted by samsara at 3:37 PM on March 14, 2001

One, you can really disable the paperclip by just not installing "Office Assistants" when you install any relevant version of Office.

Are you sure about that? My understanding was that the default Assistant (the paper clip) was installed with the general install, and that the option to "Install Office Assistants" referred to the extra Assistants (the dog, the Einstein, etc.). Of course, I may be wrong.
posted by jpoulos at 5:08 PM on March 14, 2001

In werd '97 I haven't found a way to remove it. There no option to not install office assistant.
posted by holloway at 7:56 PM on March 14, 2001

Some users enjoy the office assistant too much.
posted by chesuta at 9:31 AM on March 16, 2001