Are pirates at the door?

In previous newsletters we've recommended you skip Windows XP for your enterprise desktops, so the particular problem I'm going to outline shouldn't affect you - but it will affect you more and more as Microsoft adds Windows Product Activation technology to upcoming products.

Windows Product Activation (WPA) is the technology that tracks the hardware the application or operating system is installed on and requests a re-activation of the product if too many hardware changes are detected. It's an attempt to combat so-called " casual piracy " - the practice of people allowing friends and family to " borrow " installation media and install product on multiple PCs. I wasn't aware how widespread this practice was until I started reading the Microsoft support newsgroup for the beta release of Windows XP.

As one bemused beta tester posted, " ... the real big deal is that the home user should be permitted by the license to install one copy on all their home machines ... . " The thinking is, evidently, that business users should pay full list for each license as a subsidy of the home market. And it's not just one user thinking this way, but dozens and dozens.

Since users no longer will be able to install the operating system or new applications on every PC they own. You'll need to watch out for people trying to copy software from their enterprise desktop to their home machine. This used to be a major problem seven or eight years ago (in the days of DOS and Windows 3.x) when applications were self-contained .EXE files, or every business user had a box of diskettes available to re-install parts of the operating system or application as needed. Windows 9x, NT and 2000 changed that. It was no longer easy to identify which DLLs, .EXEs, data files and registry entries went with a particular product. It got so confusing, in fact, that utility vendors created new applications to help you move applications (check your Norton Utilities, for example) which track all of the files and registry entries needed to run a program.

We may have unwittingly aided these casual pirates by providing them with high-speed remote access to their enterprise desktops. Couple that with a utility to move an application, and it's almost easy for the user to make a copy for home use. They'll justify it, by the way, as necessary for their job. For example, if they create lots of spreadsheets with Excel, they'll want the same version of Excel at home in order to work over the weekend (or so they'll say).

You need to be sure there's a " no copying " policy in place. With teeth. Microsoft will have no compunction about suing your company if license violations are detected, and your company will have no compunction about firing you. So be sure your users are aware of how seriously you view casual piracy. But also provide a carrot - look into providing low-cost or no-cost real licenses for home use so that users can continue their work once they've left the office. Who knows, the increased productivity may more than pay for the additional licenses. Just be sure that these additional copies include WPA functionality.

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. His most recent book is "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks" published by SAMS. Dave's company, Virtual Quill, provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more at Virtual Quill or by e-mail at info@vquill.com