Now, the "Black Screen of Death"

Microsoft have just announced to their large resellers that they have this week activated some function within Windows Vista that more or less, shuts down pirated copies of the OS.

Affected systems will show:

A black screen after one hour of browsing
No start menu or task bar
No desktop

No doubt, it's just a matter of time before the crackers out there get a way round this, like they always do. Moving target this seems to be to me. And, God forbid, if Microsoft prevented security updates to these systems, we'll have more zombie systems to contend with in an "all out " virus or worm outbreak.

Anyway, now you are in no doubt who really "owns" the software running on your computer. Nice.