Yes. Repeatedly. Starting with Post 3. Read the thread before responding; it’s not even that long of a thread.
Not to bust your personal chops, but c’mon.
Absolutely; but conversely I like Microsoft quite a lot (or at least think that they are generally maligned far more than rationality dictates), and yet I’m made a bit uneasy by their software checking unbidden on your home network for hints of naughtiness. I don’t support software piracy, but I’m quite careful about what programs I let access the network, and would be more than slightly annoyed to discover things scanning our home network on the assumption that I’m being bad. Granted, in this case the user is in the wrong, but unless they make it plain that they’re going to monitor licence abuse in this way, I think MS are guilty of slightly dubious practices here.
It’s one of my most persistent gripes about modern software; the presumption that if you’ve installed it, it owns your machine. You want to watch DVDs? Well then you must want a “Cyberlink” folder cluttering up your home folder. Same for eBooks, games, Visio Shapes, Google Gadgets (Jesus…), blah, blah, blah. Icons on your desktop, Internet Explorer homepage; everything is fair game for the program that thinks it’s the only one you’ll ever run. The network is an extension of this. No, I don’t expect my word processor to go snooping on me. It’s for word processing, no more. Doug can hardly complain; he’s breaking the law. But it’s more than irritating to have your programs checking up on you without letting you know.
I think you’re an idiot, too.
–black rabbit, Linux admin
When I bought my version of Office O4 for Mac I received 3 product keys and it says on the bottom of the case:
Bolding mine.
I haven’t actually used the other 2 product keys and I’m not about to give them up over the internet but I just assumed all versions of Office for Mac had 3 product keys, no? Mine is the Student and Teacher edition (which I bought when I was a student for the record) so I suppose that matters.
My understanding is that MS isn’t checking out other machines on the network - they were probably tipped off by duplicate activation codes or something. I remember having to register my copy of Office in order for it to function, I think. I did it just by clicking a button or something, and the software contacted MS when I did so. If one did this twice for the same copy of Office, that’s how they’d know.
I could be wrong about that, but in any case I don’t think MS is “spying” on personal networks, Airport or otherwise (regardless of how unsurprising such an action would be with regard to Microsoft).
I thought Greenback was being tongue-in-cheek.
Small print? I can’t cite evidence that he even read the Large print.
He be “Blind Ben Gunn”…Arrrr…! “Blind Ben”, who lost his sight checking a canon with a slow fuse in battle. Not much of a reader, that “Blind Ben”…Arrrrrr…!
At most, one computer. Occasionally fewer. 
The Pirate Edition of Office not only shuts down Word, it shuts down Excel and then posts the following:
Arrrgh! Prepare to be boarded. Pirates will reformat your hard disks in 5 seconds. Press any key to continue.
Sure. Make your mother buy her own software!
Here’s a brush. That lowflying WHOOSH really messed up your hair.
Yep. 3 product keys are Student Teacher Edition only.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
OK, OK. Dealing with all you well-scrubbed information technologists is driving me nuts (and I’m not talking pirate talk when I say that).
I’ll use some other word processor next time I have to network with my ma. I’ve spent my last dime on Micropenis product anyway. AND THAT INCLUDES THE ASSGOBBLIN’ LICENSE FEES, which I have no intention of ever incurring liability for again.
Aaaaand I’m going to ask all my buds to give back my free CD burns of long-out-of-print 78s, too. If BMG/Sony wanted people to hear that stuff, it’d all be on sale in shrinkwrap at Virgin Megastore. Right? Riiight???
I’m not a drone. I just like to point and laugh at idiots.
I’m actually not an idiot. But I play one on the Dope. Usually when The Man pisses me off.
Thank you. I didn’t think someone would miss that.
Yeah, because there’s no qualitative difference between sharing a few long-lost tunes and making unauthorized copies of a current software package that retails for four hundred bucks, from a software company that’s a founding member of the BSA.
If you had any balls at all, you wouldn’t have bought it in the first place. Sucker.
Then again, you’re a Mac user. You should be used to being ripped off.
Interesting…thanks!
Fair enough.
Doug, you and your mom are mere human beings. You should know that your interests are as nothing to the might and power of Microsoft. It’s a big important corporation – that’s why it writes the user agreements, not you. You have no right to complain about anything, as the “drones” here have informed you. You have the right to remain silent, and that’s about it, where big important corporations are concerned. Remember: business before people, always. It’s the American way.
Hey, look, an ignorant jackass PC user showed up to spout off “I paid less for my piece of crap, virus-loaded, spyware-sucking, bluescreen of death computer but will be paying far more than what I saved in aggrevation, grief and taxes on stupid people, so I am jealous of Mac owners for not having to deal with that and will ridicule what I am too stupid to understand” bullshit, surprise surprise. It’s not like you don;t see that on every messageboard for idiots out there. Too bad this one is supposed to be fighting ignorance, not bragging about living in it.