Microsoft expands Office antipiracy 'nagging' to U.S. users

Microsoft Corp. today announced it was expanding to the U.S., the U.K. and 11 other countries an antipiracy program for Office that will identify pirated copies of the suite and nag users with on-screen messages.

The expansion follows a pilot program Microsoft launched in four countries in April 2008 and then extended to an additional 24. This is the first time, however, that Microsoft has asked U.S. users to install a notifications component that pesters users if it determines the copy of Office is illegitimate.

Microsoft said the download of the notification component was "voluntary" and added that it started to push the software to users today. Because the program is launching over the course of several months, not everyone will see it immediately.

For Windows XP users, the update is marked "High Priority" in the list generated when they retrieve downloads from Microsoft Update; Vista users see it tagged as "Important." Even if users have Automatic Updates set to download and install all updates, the notifications software requires users to accept an End User License Agreement (EULA) before it will install.

However, once it's downloaded and installed, the new notifications application cannot be uninstalled.

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