Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program designed to combat pirated versions of Windows is facing its first lawsuit only one week after the final version was released. The beta version of the software was out for about a year and was known to be very controversial. A court filing by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson asks for an injunction that prevents Microsoft from continuing to use the check-in feature of WGA in future releases. The suit asks the court award the plaintiff and class action members “…full restitution of all monies wrongfully acquired by the Defendant by means of the wrongful conduct alleged herein….” It does not state a monetary value. One complaint of the lawsuit is that the software does not ask permission before checking in. Microsoft said it does not collect any identifying information on the user during the checks. If an illegal version of Windows is found, WGA sends out messages about not running a “genuine” copy of Windows and direct the user to Microsoft Web sites to purchase a genuine copy. 

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 30th, 2006 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Security.