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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

#71

Post by realusername »

theonemind wrote: post #57
lmilcin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft did change. But then it looked how Apple and Google did the same thing, successfully, and sailed away in terms of market share and now it wants to replicate the success. The thing is, I don't think it is going to succeed. The likely thing that is already happening is that power users are leaving Windows and once power users leave the platform will die.

I don't think Mac has moved in a direction to win over power users, and Linux has a slipping desktop market share. I don't see a power-user exodus from Windows, really.

> I don't see a power-user exodus from Windows, really.

The power users outside of the MS ecosystem already left Windows a while ago you mean. A lot of mainstream tech tools & languages only have a medium support on Windows which is not really prioritized that much compared to the Mac & Linux versions. WSL is a big move to try to win those power users back.

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

#72

Post by dathinab »

p_l wrote: post #39
choeger wrote: post #5

Interesting case. If Microsoft really demands that a user does not disable features, I am looking forward to some taking this to court. The thing is, software licenses are still largely uncharted territory. If I am not allowed to modify the system as my hardware executes it, will Microsoft take liability for any damage, material or immaterieal that could be caused by it? Think of an upgrade bricking your device (happ…

The case is that the tool included a full copy of Windows, modified, and apparently with activation removed. So it got hit like any other site providing "cracked" windows.

No activation was not removed, a license is still required.

Is still a modified version being distributed but license activation was not circumvented.

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

#74

Post by dathinab »

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?

Because Microsofts claims where not about a illegal distribution of windows and it's a modified copy but not a cracked copy. (Still illegal).

This means it was just a easy way to run a modified windows which still required a working license key.

Or at least that is the point the article is making.

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

#75

Post by loufe »

malikNF wrote: post #32

Microsoft being Microsoft, its such a shame so many video games still only support MS. Over the years MS has become really user hostile (well may be not as much as my samsung android phone I guess) with constant forced updates, forced adverts for their products. And now a DMCA for a project trying to help folks customize windows? Sigh! Few days ago there was an update on Windows10 and my computer was restarted forcef…

I wish it was just the game makers needing to build for another platform which is the problem. Unfortunately a large problem is also graphics drivers. NVidia and AMD don't do much to help the open source community / linux with the development of their drivers, meaning they don't harness the power of the cards often times by significant margins comparing with Windows. There are other technical hiccups which make a difference as well.

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

#76

Post by belorn »

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…

But that is not what the DMCA copyright claim says. It does not complain about redistributing the files of a paid OS. The complaint is explicitly about providing a tool to work around technical restrictions, so "just provided an exe and some patch files" will not make microsoft happy.

A common copyright claim of someone sharing copies of proprietary files would not make news. Using the DRM circumvention provision in DMCA is a bit more rare.

My guess is that the technical restrictions being alluded to is the advertisement and telemetry that is baked in.

There are comments here that speculate about the issue being the creation of a derivative work. If the claim had said so it too would be interesting as the line between operative system and user space is always a bit blurry and people been arguing what is what for decades.

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

#77

Post by thomaslord »

p_l wrote: post #38
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #2

So much for Microsoft's professed "love" of open source. They love it only if it works in their interests making them money. Otherwise, not so much. I love this infringing feature they mentioned: "– Protect your privacy by tweak and customize Windows 10." So basically they openly admit you have to give up your privacy in order to use their product. Neat.

The project got hit for providing an ISO with license check removed, not for customizing windows. Over the last ~25 years I don't recall any of the windows customization tools getting hit with DMCA... because they didn't provide a technically illegal copy of the OS with them.

This is incorrect - the license check is not removed. (It's still a violation of copyright laws because they're publishing a derivative work without permission.)

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

#78

Post by smolder »

belorn wrote: post #76
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…

But that is not what the DMCA copyright claim says. It does not complain about redistributing the files of a paid OS. The complaint is explicitly about providing a tool to work around technical restrictions, so "just provided an exe and some patch files" will not make microsoft happy. A common copyright claim of someone sharing copies of proprietary files would not make news. Using the DRM circumvention provision in…

This is a bad move for MS. It's user hostile enough to have telemetry and ads in the OS in the first place. If they fight against people's efforts to make it usable again, they lose market share, developers/power users lose interest in the platform, less software gets bought from and made for their store, and so on. I think what they really need is a pro version of Windows that attracts pro users by removing the bullshit to start with. That shouldn't be exclusive to Enterprise.

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

#79

Post by hkt »

lmilcin wrote: post #13
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/...

Microsoft did change. But then it looked how Apple and Google did the same thing, successfully, and sailed away in terms of market share and now it wants to replicate the success. The thing is, I don't think it is going to succeed. The likely thing that is already happening is that power users are leaving Windows and once power users leave the platform will die.

After twenty years on Debian I just bought a Windows laptop on the strength of WSL2 and Docker for Windows. Being able to play SimCity has been a bonus, and I feel like I have the best of both worlds thanks to recent Windows additions. It isn't perfect but the Linux Desktop experience isn't either. Nor is OSX, in my experience.

My point being: I've been a very stubborn desktop Linux user for a long time and have migrated to Windows. The traffic, I suspect, is going the opposite way to what you seem to expect, at least for now.

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

#80

Post by Ntrails »

smolder wrote: post #78
belorn wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that is not what the DMCA copyright claim says. It does not complain about redistributing the files of a paid OS. The complaint is explicitly about providing a tool to work around technical restrictions, so "just provided an exe and some patch files" will not make microsoft happy. A common copyright claim of someone sharing copies of proprietary files would not make news. Using the DRM circumvention provision in…

This is a bad move for MS. It's user hostile enough to have telemetry and ads in the OS in the first place. If they fight against people's efforts to make it usable again, they lose market share, developers/power users lose interest in the platform, less software gets bought from and made for their store, and so on. I think what they really need is a pro version of Windows that attracts pro users by removing the bull…

> It's user hostile enough to have telemetry and ads in the OS in the first place.

I may be alone, but I think those two things are very different classes of feature, and am very relaxed about the former as an opt out.

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