How can software publishers, who claim billions of dollars in lost revenue every year due to piracy, maximize profits without ticking off customers with intrusive and distracting anti-theft solutions?
It’s an issue Microsoft has wrestled with for decades dating back to the late 1970’s when co-founder Bill Gates wrote an open letter to the Homebrew Computer Club, pleading with computer hobbyists to stop the illegally copying of his new company’s software.
A far more recent antipiracy effort, Microsoft’s Office Genuine Advantage, wasn’t all that well received when it made its debut in the U.S. last year. As Datamation reports, Microsoft just made a key change to the program however.
There were no death notices, but Microsoft confirmed Monday several reports over the weekend that it has killed off its sometimes controversial Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program.
Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) anti-piracy program for Office, which was introduced in the U.S. in August 2009, worked by making internal checks in the users’ Microsoft Office software in order to determine whether the code was legitimate or stolen.