Microsoft retires anti-piracy program

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Without any formal announcement or farewell, Microsoft recently closed the door on its anti-piracy program Office Genuine Advantage.

The Office Genuine Advantage program, which was introduced in 2006, required Office users to validate their software with Microsoft before downloading updates or add-ins to make sure their version was genuine.

But as of last week, Microsoft is apparently no longer offering support for the program.

A Microsoft spokesperson issued a statement confirming the retirement, noting that the program had "served its purpose."

Despite the retirement of OGA, Microsoft still has security measures in place to ensure its Office software is not pirated. Upon activating the software, users are still required to enter a valid 25-character key.

Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage program is still active, and a spokesperson from the company confirmed with ZDNet that there are no plans to discontinue it.

According to a recent study by IDC, more than 40 percent of software applications are unlicensed or pirated, which, in 2009, cost the software publishing industry more than $51 billion.