Well, I got the news from The Star online today saying that Microsoft will take a step further to combat piracy on its products by implementing some sort of dark/black/blank (or they prefer to use the word “Blackouts”) screen for users of pirated Windows XP Pro.

PETALING JAYA: Starting Wednesday, users with pirated copies of Microsoft Corp’s Windows XP Professional operating system (OS) on machines that are Internet-capable could find their computer displays going black and with no screen icons visible.

There are 8.6 million users of Win XP Pro in Malaysia and about three million are expected to suffer the “blackouts,” according to Microsoft Malaysia.

To continue working, the user would need to reset the machine’s desktop background. Everything will return to normal. But when 60 minutes are up, the black screen will reappear and the user must go through the whole process again.

Source: TheStar Online

My Take

Well, I don’t know if this step only apply to Malaysian user but I have little doubt Microsoft will even stop there. Expect another fuss coming from either Microsoft or the *ehem* *ehem* community. You can read the full article by following the given url and evaluate everything yourself. I suddenly remembered a quote from Jurassic Park movie which sound something like “Nature will find it’s way” and seeing how Windows XP is still very popular, I kinda can see Microsoft latest move will end in vain (remember WGA¹ anyone?). I’m not praying it to happen though; just predicting

Owh….don’t make that gloomy face ; isn’t this the best time to jump to Linux?