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Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

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Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#61

Post by user5994461 »

qilo wrote: post #27
lostgame wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure, but is Windows 10 not slightly different from previous releases insofar as you can directly download the ISO for Windows 10? Unless you had an MSDN subscription it was a little more difficult to grab an ISO back in the day. Of course, it’s still illegal to modify and upload the modified version...but you’d think the patcher would be an even more obvious route than normal these days if it’s so easy to do…

Yes, now Microsoft allows everyone to download ISO. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10I...

The ISO is provided so you can download to your Windows 7 PC and upgrade in place to Windows 10. I did it on my old laptop, works well.

Microsoft really wants Windows 7 to go away and they actually give the tools to do so. I think it's great!

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#62

Post by gbear605 »

dancemethis wrote: post #53

It is a DMCA violation to remove what Microsoft calls "Windows features" from its proprietary operating system. It tells a lot about what DMCA and Windows are. It tells even more about whose side they are on: the common people or the enterprise. I can only hope the answer is easy enough to figure out, but I'll leave a tip just in case: not on the side of people.

This was not a instance of DMCA not allowing tweaks, but rather DMCA not allowing people to distribute minorly changed isos of Windows.

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#63

Post by jeroenhd »

lostgame wrote: post #22
jeroenhd wrote: post #16

The website is down, but yeah, offering customised ISO files with Windows and some tools is clearly a breach of license. You can't just take a paid OS distribution, add some config and plonk it onto github. There's been people patching and customising Windows for many years, but most of the time that was done in the form of gaining an official ISO, patching it with a program on your computer and then using that to in…

I’m not sure, but is Windows 10 not slightly different from previous releases insofar as you can directly download the ISO for Windows 10? Unless you had an MSDN subscription it was a little more difficult to grab an ISO back in the day. Of course, it’s still illegal to modify and upload the modified version...but you’d think the patcher would be an even more obvious route than normal these days if it’s so easy to do…

Copyright law does not grant you tge right to spread something you downloaded even if it was free. The original rights holder may decide who can and cannot host what part of their product for what reason. Free software usually permits you to redistribute the software you download, but there's no such freedom in closed source software. This is part of the "free as in speech" qualifier of open source software.

Microsoft does allow you to download the ISO for free, which is why I don't understand why they didn't include a patcher either.

Looking at the official twitter account for the project, it seems like the project maintainers (and likely their users) reside somewhere in the Middle East, given that they seem to speak Arabic. Perhaps the average Internet near the project's target audience are low enough to warrant uploading a customised, minimised ISO? I don't know, a patcher seems like a better choice to me. Maybe they'll switch models now because of the takedown?

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#64

Post by user5994461 »

chenzhekl wrote: post #52
FactolSarin wrote: post #49

How does something like this get to the front page? Someone provides a cracked copy of Windows and calls it "Ninjitsu OS" and then cries foul when it's taken down because of course it was. Is there that much of an anti-Microsoft sentiment that people upvote something like this uncritically?

I bet lots of people who upvoted the post didn't even read the main text.

I read the text and it says nothing like it. It's all about DMCA takedown for removing telemetry, not a single mention of distributing cracked ISO of windows.

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#65

Post by n0cturne »

darkwater wrote: post #35
winkeltripel wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"BSA, is a trade group established by Microsoft" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSA_(The_Software_Alliance)

I still remember the BSA ads against pirate software in the '90s..

“Don’t copy that floppy.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Copy_That_Floppy

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#66

Post by close04 »

dTal wrote: post #17
close04 wrote: post #3

Ninjutsu OS appears to be a full ISO file containing a tweaked Windows installation source. Why not release everything as a tool that applies all the customizations on an installation from the official ISO? The tools that are used to implement that customization ( Win10-Initial-Setup-Script and O&O ShutUp10 ) were always available. So why not just publish the recipe? Do people still download OS and antivirus software…

Worth a historical note that this method of distributing more and more invasive software patches was how BSD was born.

Is this the Research Unix derivative Berkley Software Distribution from 1978 or the current day descendants?

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#68

Post by henearkr »

romanovcode wrote: post #50
henearkr wrote: post #4

Microsoft hasn't changed after all... I used to like what they were doing with WSL, but now on the contrary it starts to worry me, because it can become an avenue of evil behavior against users/devs/open-source/...

Did you even read the article? Someone took ISO and modified it for re-distribution which is piracy. It has absolutely nothing to do with disabling features on your own Win10 installation.

Yes I had RTFA.

Seems like you can download Windows nowadays, and you need to buy the license key separately. I am wrong? (I ask naively, because I am not a Microsoft user)

Re: Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

#70

Post by nkurz »

romanovcode wrote: post #50
henearkr wrote: post #4

Microsoft hasn't changed after all... I used to like what they were doing with WSL, but now on the contrary it starts to worry me, because it can become an avenue of evil behavior against users/devs/open-source/...

Did you even read the article? Someone took ISO and modified it for re-distribution which is piracy. It has absolutely nothing to do with disabling features on your own Win10 installation.

Maybe the linked article has been updated since you posted, but this is not true of the current article.

Yes, they were distributing a modified ISO and it probably should/could have been taken down on straight copyright grounds. But the article is about the fact that rather than concentrating on this clear violation, the DMCA complaint specifically calls out the modifications as infringing because "the link provides a work around technical restrictions of the software". This distinction is directly addressed in the paragraph that starts "At first view, some may conclude that Ninjutsu OS amounts to a heavily modified yet pirated version of Windows 10."

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