Time: Yesterday.

Did you hear it? It was the sound of a big, big door slamming.

The door was virtual, but the sound it made will echo across the world for years to come. Yesterday was Day One of the Microsoft lockdown using the Genuine Advantage program.

If your Microsoft software is all legal, then the day passed without noticing much of any difference. The most you saw was that you were no longer asked if you were willing to go through authentication before downloading software updates from Microsoft.com. Instead, you’ll have to go through the authentication process before you’re allowed to download.

[Read Microsoft Begins New Piracy Restrictions at Adelphia.net]

Microsoft Corp. has kicked off a new program aimed at severely curtailing the ways people using pirated copies of its Windows operating system can get software updates.

When a computer user starts to download updates, the new program, called Windows Genuine Advantage, will scan the machine to see if it’s running an authentic version of Windows.

If the program detects a counterfeit copy, it will offer two options…