Microsoft’s been busy updating its Windows 10 end user license agreement (EULA), targeting users of counterfeit software and unauthorised hardware. The latest operating system from Microsoft can now identify illegitimate goods and potentially disable them. This includes both the software and the hardware.
The result of this is that Microsoft can now use Windows 10 to find and disable pirated games. It comes as a result of an update section 7B of the EULA, which states "We may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorised hardware peripheral devices.”
In theory this means Microsoft can detect a pirated game and remotely disable it, whether that be on Windows 10 PCs or mobile devices. This would be an effective method of clamping down on pirates and eventually steering people towards Microsoft’s threadbare Windows Store. On the hardware side it’s unclear what Microsoft means by this, although it’s likely in an effort to target cheat devices.
Pirates, like life, always find a way though, and we’d imagine it wouldn’t be too difficult to evade Microsoft’s grasp here.
Steam and GOG have both shown the best way to combat piracy is to make the act of getting quality games as simple and easily achievable as possible, something which can’t be said of the Windows Store just yet.
Should Microsoft be targeting illegal software and hardware like this? Or is it a necessary evil to combat pirates?
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