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Office Genuine Advantage Retired By Microsoft Amid Software Challenges

Calendar Dec 22, 2010 • User Avatar Anthony Pell
1 min read
General Esm H446
Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

software protection Microsoft Office software policy software retirement anti-piracy program
Not a Linux article, but important nonetheless. This seems to show that money can't be made with closed-source software any longer. Even with the best protection, it doesn't keep people from sharing it. Microsoft last week killed an anti-piracy service that checked whether customers were running legal copies of Office, saying that the program had "served its purpose." ZDNet blogger Ed Bott first reported on Microsoft's move after a tipster pointed him toward a support document on the company's site. That Dec. 17 document simply noted that Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) "has been retired," but offered no explanation.

In an e-mail reply to questions today, a Microsoft spokeswoman added, "The program has served its purpose and thus we have decided to retire the program."

The link for this article located at Network World is no longer available.