While I have read 11 different takes on the 19 hour disaster that was the Windows Genuine Advantage server outage, it was not until the very last one I read, this morning, that I got an opinion that agreed with what I had been thinking since I heard about the problem.

In an article titled “Don’t Trust the Servers”, John C. Dvorak writes about the long term disadvantages to Microsoft from the fiasco. You may have heard that Microsoft has started selling subscription based software in Africa. It is true and merely a ‘pilot’ to a much bigger idea.

Microsoft wants to fully expound on the concept put forth in every one of its EULAs (End User License Agreement). For those who have merely clicked on the button, rather than fully reading all the particulars - which is what Microsoft, and any other software company desires - the agreement requirements that you have acceded to are 1) the software is not yours, you are merely using something that belongs to Microsoft - in effect, merely renting for an unspecified term 2) you cannot modify the software in any way whatsoever, and 3) although you have paid for a working product, with reasonable expectations of efficacy, you cannot hold Microsoft responsible for any problems incurred by the use of said software.

Where else in life are such limitations imposed? None, as far as I am aware. When one pays for something, even a rental, one has the reasonable right to believe that the product will work as designed, and can hold the one who rents the product liable for the product not working properly.

How this deniability of liability for anything has come about with software is anybody’s guess - but in the world of paid software, it is so.

Now what Microsoft wishes to do in the very near future is put all that EULA ‘goodness’  together with a specific end date to the rental agreement. This is what the euphemism ’software-as-a-service’ means.

Now what happens when the Microsoft servers are down for an unspecified time, and the software is due for renewal? What happens, unless a very creative and flexible verification program is put into place, is that your hardware, that machinery in front of you (that you cherish, secretly, more than you should) becomes almost useless.

Microsoft will tell the users that this will not happen. This will have been accounted for in necessary redundant systems.  This is where you, as the one affected, had better step in and say “Wait a minute. What are you talking about here? You could not take care of simple validation for XP and Vista in August of 2007. Why are things different now?” 

And you had better wait for a reasonable answer before acceding to ’software-as-a-service’.

Mr. Dvorak’s article

Tags:  windows genuine advantage, microsoft, validation servers, software-as-a-service, eula, specific rights