The other day I needed a recent copy of Microsoft Office on Nighthawk. The only copy of Office that I own is a copy of Office 97 that came with my first computer. I had a working copy of Office 2003 on Scribus, but I needed it on Nighthawk. So I zipped out my iPod and copied the installers for Office 2007 Beta 2 and its “technical refresh” over from the openSUSE partition. Before long I had everything installed. But there was one problem.

It refused to activate.

I don’t mean that my product key was illicit or anything…it’s the same key everyone else has been using. And it’s the same key that I got through the Microsoft Beta Experience program. But the Microsoft activation servers failed to respond. Since I really needed Office to activate, I decided it was time to try a less out-in-the-open route.

I went on a few torrent sites (not gonna name names here to keep myself out of trouble but Google is your friend) and quickly found a keygen for Office 2007 Enterprise Edition – and the corresponding ISO image. Soon I had downloaded both and happily bypassed Office Product Activation. And what’s the kicker? Microsoft can’t tell where my Office copy is among the soon-to-be millions of Office Update users. So, as far as I know, I have the Office Genuine Advantage without even having the “Genuine” part. I really have no regret for doing that, and if the FBI shows up at my house then who cares. I tried taking the legit route, and Microsoft failed me. So I really had no choice.

There’s your one example. If you don’t get the point, then let me make it painfully obvious: If the product activation system in the beta version of Office had (a) worked properly, or (b) not been there in the first place, then I would not have had to crack the release version of Office. (And I tried the keygen’ed key on the beta release of Office as well.) Any comments/excuses, Microsoft?