Tattle on a Counterfeiter, Get a Free Copy of Windows

Microsoft is offering a new incentive to get Windows users to turn in vendors selling allegedly counterfeit products: It is offering to replace their pirated Windows copies for free.
Microsoft announced the newest wrinkle to its Windows Genuine Advantage program on Wednesday. Launched in September 2004, Windows Genuine Advantage is an anti-piracy program. It is designed to check whether consumer and small-business customers are running legitimately licensed copies of Windows XP. Users validate by providing Microsoft-requested system information, including their Windows product keys, names of PC manufacturers, and operating system versions, which the Redmond software company uses to determine if customers are running legitimate copies of Windows.