Microsoft office genuine advantage

[iJoe]

Eugh, well, I obviously didn't pay for office 03, mainly because I wouldn't want to pay the stupid price it normally costs but you actually can't find anywhere that sells it lol.

Anyway....

Microsoft decided to roll out as an essential update this stupid office genuine advantage thing (which i did stop from downloading but they snuck in there) which kindly reminds you that office isn't genuine. Firstly it was just a nice little pop up message saying learn more or remind me later but now it has a countdown of days until it's marked as nor genuine (which i assume will make it un useable)

Anyone else been stuck with this lovely application and know how to remove it?

Joe (:

[Recursion]

I find the best removal tool is buying the damn software. It's cheap for students too, like £30 from www.software4students.co.uk (http://www.software4students.co.uk), and nowhere sells it? Amazon, PC World, OcUK, Aria, eBuyer, any respectable PC shop.

But seriously, when it's only £30 for a student to buy something that normally costs upwards of £150 - £400 (depending on the version), it's a steal tbh, and you'll get Office 2010 or 2007

Have fun ;)

[::Art::]

just download it from thepiratebay.org :P

[AgnesIO]

Bit of a sad person to actually steal £30 of software, I am pretty sure ANYONE in the UK can afford that.

[Blob]

There is a registry hack you can get to validate Office 2007, try looking for 2003.

[The Professor]

Bit of a sad person to actually steal £30 of software, I am pretty sure ANYONE in the UK can afford that.

£30 is £30, if you can pirate it for free and spend the £30 for more essential things like petrol or a social life it makes sense. If you want to pay go ahead but don't force it down everyone's throats!

As Art said, just download the new one from the torrents, you'll get all the new features (which includes opening .docx files which I know 2003 can't do)

[Recursion]

£30 is £30, if you can pirate it for free and spend the £30 for more essential things like petrol or a social life it makes sense. If you want to pay go ahead but don't force it down everyone's throats!

As Art said, just download the new one from the torrents, you'll get all the new features (which includes opening .docx files which I know 2003 can't do)

I take a totally different view on that :P

Piracy is only good if it's something rediculously priced like Photoshop (It's still something like £180 for a student), if it's cheap and you need/use/want the software, then just buy it :P

[Barmi]

£30 is £30, if you can pirate it for free and spend the £30 for more essential things like petrol or a social life it makes sense. If you want to pay go ahead but don't force it down everyone's throats!

As Art said, just download the new one from the torrents, you'll get all the new features (which includes opening .docx files which I know 2003 can't do)
If you're careful, you can also go into a shop and take some clothes for free. You can take food from Tesco without paying too.

What an absolutely ridiculous argument. If someone needs Microsoft Office, they can buy it. As a student it's brilliantly inexpensive, so there really is no bar there. If he/she can't pony up £30, there are free alternatives out there. Yeah, free as in legal.

I think Recursion's argument (while I don't subscribe to it myself) does have some valid moral weight. Adobe's high-priced, high-end software is out of reach of the average consumer (except students needing it for their course, which is affordable). They are targeting the professional studios who need the software and need to be 100% legal. Adobe's prices are so high because they know professionals will pay the cost, which compensates for the private piracy at the other end of the spectrum.

[AgnesIO]

£30 is £30, if you can pirate it for free and spend the £30 for more essential things like petrol or a social life it makes sense. If you want to pay go ahead but don't force it down everyone's throats!

As Art said, just download the new one from the torrents, you'll get all the new features (which includes opening .docx files which I know 2003 can't do)

I like how you only quoted me there alex ;)


If you're careful, you can also go into a shop and take some clothes for free. You can take food from Tesco without paying too.

What an absolutely ridiculous argument. If someone needs Microsoft Office, they can buy it. As a student it's brilliantly inexpensive, so there really is no bar there. If he/she can't pony up £30, there are free alternatives out there. Yeah, free as in legal.

I think Recursion's argument (while I don't subscribe to it myself) does have some valid moral weight. Adobe's high-priced, high-end software is out of reach of the average consumer (except students needing it for their course, which is affordable). They are targeting the professional studios who need the software and need to be 100% legal. Adobe's prices are so high because they know professionals will pay the cost, which compensates for the private piracy at the other end of the spectrum.

Exactly.

People say pirating £30 is fine, yet they wouldn't like it if they were let's say Nike, and they opened a shop and everyone kept stealing their £30 shoes.

[The Professor]

If you're careful, you can also go into a shop and take some clothes for free. You can take food from Tesco without paying too.

What an absolutely ridiculous argument. If someone needs Microsoft Office, they can buy it. As a student it's brilliantly inexpensive, so there really is no bar there. If he/she can't pony up £30, there are free alternatives out there. Yeah, free as in legal.

I think Recursion's argument (while I don't subscribe to it myself) does have some valid moral weight. Adobe's high-priced, high-end software is out of reach of the average consumer (except students needing it for their course, which is affordable). They are targeting the professional studios who need the software and need to be 100% legal. Adobe's prices are so high because they know professionals will pay the cost, which compensates for the private piracy at the other end of the spectrum.

I'm not advocating that it's right to steal, just that it doesn't matter whether the price is £3 or £300. If you'd rather put it towards something else or don't have that money spare pirating it makes sense if you can live with the moral and legal consequences. Whatever the price you're still screwing with the developer's business model. Yes there are free alternatives but they're never as good as the market leaders.

Sorry Dom I didn't mean to target you :P

[AgnesIO]

I'm not advocating that it's right to steal, just that it doesn't matter whether the price is £3 or £300. If you'd rather put it towards something else or don't have that money spare pirating it makes sense if you can live with the moral and legal consequences. Whatever the price you're still screwing with the developer's business model. Yes there are free alternatives but they're never as good as the market leaders.

Sorry Dom I didn't mean to target you :P

No worries haha. Easy to quote me as let's be honest, I am normally the one posting controversually (however it's spelt yeh) lol

[Adamm]

I find the best removal tool is buying the damn software. It's cheap for students too, like £30 from www.software4students.co.uk (http://www.software4students.co.uk), and nowhere sells it? Amazon, PC World, OcUK, Aria, eBuyer, any respectable PC shop.

But seriously, when it's only £30 for a student to buy something that normally costs upwards of £150 - £400 (depending on the version), it's a steal tbh, and you'll get Office 2010 or 2007

Have fun ;)
Some people aren't students.

[rnix]

People steal 99p music tracks? :) I BET you most people here have illegally downloaded music :)

[FlyingJesus]

There are plenty of free replicas around. I have Star Office which I got free with my course, fairly sure it's free elsewhere anyway if you find it but if not there are still loads of other office-type programs that don't cost a penny, if you don't mind not having the paperclip talking to you.

[Colin-Roberts]

why not use openoffice?]

[marriott0.01]

There are plenty of free replicas around. I have Star Office which I got free with my course, fairly sure it's free elsewhere anyway if you find it but if not there are still loads of other office-type programs that don't cost a penny, if you don't mind not having the paperclip talking to you.

Isn't StarOffice just OpenOffice now?

[FlyingJesus]

Might well be, version I have calls itself Star Office 9 though so dunno if they gave me a crappy old one or something :P

[marriott0.01]

Might well be, version I have calls itself Star Office 9 though so dunno if they gave me a crappy old one or something :P

Apparently changed its name in 2010 but StarOffice 9 was a product from 2008 so took their time to change the name lols

[Recursion]

why not use openoffice?]

Because it's not a patch on the actual Microsoft Office, as much as I like Open Source, it's the truth ;)


People steal 99p music tracks? :) I BET you most people here have illegally downloaded music :)

Not gunna lie, I have done, but now they're so cheap from AmazonMP3 and without DRM I have switched to buying them :D

[rnix]

Not gunna lie, I have done, but now they're so cheap from AmazonMP3 and without DRM I have switched to buying them :D

Exactly, most people here have downloaded free music and they say why get illegal products that are £30 ;/ :L including you.

[Trinity]

If you're careful, you can also go into a shop and take some clothes for free. You can take food from Tesco without paying too.

People say pirating £30 is fine, yet they wouldn't like it if they were let's say Nike, and they opened a shop and everyone kept stealing their £30 shoes.

Pirating software is not like stealing things from a shop. If you steal from a shop, that shop has lost something that they could have sold to someone, so you are actually stealing.
Pirating is making a copy of the software, it doesn't affect the company's ability to sell it to someone else (some exceptions to this if you want to be picky) so the company doesn't really lose out much.

Note: I don't illegally download software or even music, but that argument just annoys me.

[Barmi]

Pirating software is not like stealing things from a shop. If you steal from a shop, that shop has lost something that they could have sold to someone, so you are actually stealing.
Pirating is making a copy of the software, it doesn't affect the company's ability to sell it to someone else (some exceptions to this if you want to be picky) so the company doesn't really lose out much.

Note: I don't illegally download software or even music, but that argument just annoys me.
Your distinction doesn't make sense.

Regardless of whether we're on about tangible goods or intellectual property, it's still a loss of a potential sale. (On a definitional note, loss of potential is a valid loss in UK contract law.) You seem to have a total disregard for intellectual property law. Just because something is available in a digital format, it doesn't suddenly mean you have a God-given entitlement to it for free, leaving only the good samaritans to pay. You're skating on dangerous paths with that argument.

To give you a more analogous example: newspapers. There are free newspapers available, but aren't quite the same quality as the ones you would pay for. Do you feel entitled to steal newspapers? (Bar a few popular exceptions, shops don't 'run out' of newspapers.)

Edit: As others have pointed out in this thread, OpenOffice.org is perfectly fine. It has many features Microsoft Office has, only less glossy. If you need Microsoft Office, there's a lovely inexpensive student option or the Home option for ~£100.

When people need something in life, they damn well make sure to sacrifice things they don't need. If you need to buy a software package, then don't buy CDs for a month. Or just don't buy that new pair of jeans you wanted. *shrug* Some people (most are kids who haven't had a job) have a general sense of entitlement, believing everything digital should belong to them for no cost. It's ridiculous and gets on my ****. Join the working world and realise that many things have an intrinsic value.

[rnix]

When people need something in life, they damn well make sure to sacrifice things they don't need. If you need to buy a software package, then don't buy CDs for a month. Or just don't buy that new pair of jeans you wanted. *shrug* Some people (most are kids who haven't had a job) have a general sense of entitlement, believing everything digital should belong to them for no cost. It's ridiculous and gets on my ****. Join the working world and realise that many things have an intrinsic value.


This bit makes me laugh the most. I download pretty much everything illegal (bar the whole sims collection and wow) But yes music, adobe products etc. You say us kids have no sense of entitlement? :L
Mate i work my ******* ass off to make money as well as still studying :) I have my own money which i spend on stuff i WANT, my parents also spend money on me on things i WANT and NEED.
I bet you have downloaded a SINGLE illegal item before. :)

[AgnesIO]

This bit makes me laugh the most. I download pretty much everything illegal (bar the whole sims collection and wow) But yes music, adobe products etc. You say us kids have no sense of entitlement? :L
Mate i work my ******* ass off to make money as well as still studying :) I have my own money which i spend on stuff i WANT, my parents also spend money on me on things i WANT and NEED.
I bet you have downloaded a SINGLE illegal item before. :)

I think the argument is some people download the occasional song (I haven't done myself in months) when they don't have a debit/credit hard to hand - and it is quicker if you only have a debit card to download a 5mb file than it is to go to a bank and et money out (all be it under £1). That was the reason I last did, and even then I only downloaded it and never used it again :L

And thats hypocritical.. you say I have money to get things I 'WANT' - yet last time i checked the reason you to steal things is because you WANT them. So erm..

--

I agree with Barmi on this on, why is it people think because you can buy songs digitally now you re ENTITLED to get them for free. An last time I checked a lot of the stuff like Office etc people buy only comes with a disc - so surely that is something you physically own.

[rnix]

I think the argument is some people download the occasional song (I haven't done myself in months) when they don't have a debit/credit hard to hand - and it is quicker if you only have a debit card to download a 5mb file than it is to go to a bank and et money out (all be it under £1). That was the reason I last did, and even then I only downloaded it and never used it again :L

And thats hypocritical.. you say I have money to get things I 'WANT' - yet last time i checked the reason you to steal things is because you WANT them. So erm..

Nah. I WANT other stuff likes clothes etc. I also WANT music for free.
If there is an easy way to get something for free then why pay for it? :)

[AgnesIO]

Nah. I WANT other stuff likes clothes etc. I also WANT music for free.
If there is an easy way to get something for free then why pay for it? :)

It's easy to walk in a shop and take a chocolate bar.

I still pay for it.

[Recursion]

Nah. I WANT other stuff likes clothes etc. I also WANT music for free.
If there is an easy way to get something for free then why pay for it? :)

You wouldn't be saying that if a letter was put through your lettbox tomorrow morning asking you to fess up £3000+++ ;)

But either way, that's a rediculous attitude to take, fair enough if you cant pay for it or you dont have a card or something because really, the companies aren't losing out because it isn't a "potential sale" at all, but when you can pay for something and it's something you want, buy it.

[Trinity]

Your distinction doesn't make sense.

Regardless of whether we're on about tangible goods or intellectual property, it's still a loss of a potential sale. (On a definitional note, loss of potential is a valid loss in UK contract law.) You seem to have a total disregard for intellectual property law. Just because something is available in a digital format, it doesn't suddenly mean you have a God-given entitlement to it for free, leaving only the good samaritans to pay. You're skating on dangerous paths with that argument.

To give you a more analogous example: newspapers. There are free newspapers available, but aren't quite the same quality as the ones you would pay for. Do you feel entitled to steal newspapers? (Bar a few popular exceptions, shops don't 'run out' of newspapers.)


I don't have a total disregard for intellectual property law at all, if I did then I would illegally download stuff, but I don't. I apologise if the way I worded it didn't get my point across properly.
I don't agree with illegally downloading anything, I completely agree with what you said about people sacrificing the things they don't need, or just choosing a less glossy, free alternative. What I was trying to say was that I don't agree with pirating being likened to stealing something physical from a shop.
I like your newspaper analogy, I've never seen it put that way before.

The 'loss of potential' part interests me. I'm not sure how it's seen by law, but would an illegal downloader (who would never pay for it anyway) really count as a potential sale?
There was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember what it was.

[Barmi]

I don't have a total disregard for intellectual property law at all, if I did then I would illegally download stuff, but I don't. I apologise if the way I worded it didn't get my point across properly.
I don't agree with illegally downloading anything, I completely agree with what you said about people sacrificing the things they don't need, or just choosing a less glossy, free alternative. What I was trying to say was that I don't agree with pirating being likened to stealing something physical from a shop.
I like your newspaper analogy, I've never seen it put that way before.

The 'loss of potential' part interests me. I'm not sure how it's seen by law, but would an illegal downloader (who would never pay for it anyway) really count as a potential sale?
There was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember what it was.
Loss of a prospect usually only applies in contract law and the tort of negligence. What we're talking about here is criminal liability, so it's an irrelevant consideration for either physical or intellectual property.

Regardless of whether you're stealing from a shop or infringing upon someone's intellectual property rights, they're both criminal offences (covered by the Theft Act 1968 and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 respectively).

Before someone suggests that theft is different from infringing upon someone's intellectual property rights, don't. I could have a conversation all night about property rights ranging right back from ancient Rome. The statutory offence of theft is to protect an individual's property rights. The statutory offences under the CDPA 1988 are to protect an individual's intellectual property rights.

I hope that makes things a little clearer. ^_^

[iJoe]

Thanks to whoever suggested the registry hack I'll have a look for that now.

@the person who said download it from TPB, i did and now it's flagged as not genuine :(

I didn't know you could get it for £30 as a student, but still, I don't see the point in buying 03 for £30 with its limited features compared to 07 which i could also get for £30, but I can't get 07 as it's only currently supported in half the school and saving as an 03 file defeats the object of having the advanced featured of 07 (if you catch my drift :P)

+, as if bill needs my money :D

[AgnesIO]

Office 2010 - £47 - http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_2010_Professional_Plus-details.aspx
Office 2007 - £38 - http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_Standard_2007-details.aspx

Cough

---

And if EVERYONE took that attitude about the money thing, then there would be no microsoft. What a ******* stupid comment of yours that was.

[Recursion]

Thanks to whoever suggested the registry hack I'll have a look for that now.

@the person who said download it from TPB, i did and now it's flagged as not genuine :(

I didn't know you could get it for £30 as a student, but still, I don't see the point in buying 03 for £30 with its limited features compared to 07 which i could also get for £30, but I can't get 07 as it's only currently supported in half the school and saving as an 03 file defeats the object of having the advanced featured of 07 (if you catch my drift :P)

+, as if bill needs my money :D

Like 99% of the new stuff in Word 2007 will convert into the 03 format just fine.

[iJoe]

Ah well, removed the registry keys now (:

And that comment wasn't supposed to be taken seriously, but lets be honest, bill gates is minted, and not everyone will / can make that decision thanks to the monopoly currently owned by bill gates by having windows pre-installed on most pc's you buy in shops like comet / pc world. So not everyone can make the decision to go, ah well bill doesn't need the money, as when they buy the pc, whether they like it or not, they're buying windows (: (If they're buying from a shop such as pc world / comet etc)

Lighten up, it's not like I've came round to your house and personally robbed £50 off you.

[Apolva]

There's a free beta of office 2010 out now.

Works until October, I think.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

[AgnesIO]

If some people pay for it everyone should.

[The Professor]

Your distinction doesn't make sense.

Regardless of whether we're on about tangible goods or intellectual property, it's still a loss of a potential sale. (On a definitional note, loss of potential is a valid loss in UK contract law.) You seem to have a total disregard for intellectual property law. Just because something is available in a digital format, it doesn't suddenly mean you have a God-given entitlement to it for free, leaving only the good samaritans to pay. You're skating on dangerous paths with that argument.

Where your argument falls down is it isn't a loss of a potential sale. The music industry and the film industry constantly come out with figures declaring how much money they've lost due to piracy and the sad thing is they've made them all up. Just because I'm pirating Adobe CS5 it doesn't mean I'd have necessarily bought it anyway. You can't count it as £1000 Adobe has lost because they would have never got that £1000 either way. It also isn't a loss of a potential sale in the same way a newspaper/jeans from tesco because that digital copy hasn't vanished from stock in the same way the jeans and newspaper has. The same number of people can still buy it.

That said, I'm not saying stealing is right at all. I don't think anyone here feels they have an entitlement to the things they're stealing; they won't be aggrieved if they can't find a pirated version of Office. We just recognise that in the digital age pirating rather than paying is a viable option and we have more questionable ethics than some.

[Chevy]

Buy it, be done with it.

Once you buy it atleast you know you don't have to worry about any legal issues, or anything else.

I bought my Microsoft Word, and gee, I am glad I did. I get a free upgrade to Office 2010 once it comes out anyways :)

[iJoe]

If some people pay for it everyone should.

Not everyone will though.

If I had a use for 07 I'd get it, my school are upgrading slowly, as they get the new pc's they're imaging 07 onto them, but until then I have no use for it so won't buy it (:

Whatever you're using digitally software, music, films, operating systems, you may pay £100's of pounds for, yet somewhere someone will be using it free.

Office, Photoshop and Illustrator are the only pirated software I have on my laptop and all my music is legal and covered by produb/ppl licenses and all my films are legal too, so not like I download stuff on mass, only stuff I need :P

Only torrented photoshop / illustrator as needed them for school and can't afford the high price tag.

[Barmi]

Where your argument falls down is it isn't a loss of a potential sale. The music industry and the film industry constantly come out with figures declaring how much money they've lost due to piracy and the sad thing is they've made them all up. Just because I'm pirating Adobe CS5 it doesn't mean I'd have necessarily bought it anyway. You can't count it as £1000 Adobe has lost because they would have never got that £1000 either way. It also isn't a loss of a potential sale in the same way a newspaper/jeans from tesco because that digital copy hasn't vanished from stock in the same way the jeans and newspaper has. The same number of people can still buy it.

That said, I'm not saying stealing is right at all. I don't think anyone here feels they have an entitlement to the things they're stealing; they won't be aggrieved if they can't find a pirated version of Office. We just recognise that in the digital age pirating rather than paying is a viable option and we have more questionable ethics than some.
And if you read what I continued with, you'll notice I said loss of potential is an irrelevant consideration for either side of the argument. Whether you steal a packet of sweets or whether you steal a digital licence for software, it's criminal liability. Loss is only a relevant consideration in certain civil litigation. Theft of tangible goods and theft of intellectual property both draw liability from a statutory offence. It is not a viable option.

The newspaper analogy is a very close one, because the economy of scale is such that each paper costs a negligible amount (hey, bandwidth costs too!), and vendors generally do not run out. But as I've said, you're clutching at straws ever since Trinity mentioned the idea of loss of potential... which does not apply. It is an irrelevant consideration in criminal law.

And yes, there are people in this thread with a ridiculous sense of entitlement. Check out the kid who said he spends his money on things he wants and needs, but downloads software for free because he 'needs' it. It just doesn't fly. OpenOffice.org is more than satisfactory for what most people need. If not, there are home or student licences. I don't buy the 'I need Adobe software' for school argument either. If you need it, school will either provide you with a licence, or they will have copies themselves. You're never expected to incur software costs at school.

As for the OP: you don't need to stick with 03. Your school should have the update to allow 03 to open later files. Besides, you can run a compatibility check in the newest versions of Office to check your document will be backwards compatible. Join the rest of the world on 07 or 10.

[Recursion]

Not everyone will though.

If I had a use for 07 I'd get it, my school are upgrading slowly, as they get the new pc's they're imaging 07 onto them, but until then I have no use for it so won't buy it (:

Whatever you're using digitally software, music, films, operating systems, you may pay £100's of pounds for, yet somewhere someone will be using it free.

Office, Photoshop and Illustrator are the only pirated software I have on my laptop and all my music is legal and covered by produb/ppl licenses and all my films are legal too, so not like I download stuff on mass, only stuff I need :P

Only torrented photoshop / illustrator as needed them for school and can't afford the high price tag.

Do you completely ignore my posts?

Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 are 99% backwards compatible, you WILL NOT see any noticable difference if you save as .doc in Word 2007 or 2010.

Also, either way, your I.T. Admins should have imaged them with the Office compatibility packs.

[Jonster]

I think you'll find the sole reason why people will pirate and illegally download online is that there is a significant difference and chance in you getting caught. Take the shop example again and you pick up that bag of sweets - you're on your own, no-one else is stealing from that shop so you have a high chance of being caught. Then pirate something online, and at any one time thousands of people across the world will be pirating some form of file, so the chance of being caught is dramatically reduced, at least in the short term.

[Hitman]

I think you'll find the sole reason why people will pirate and illegally download online is that there is a significant difference and chance in you getting caught. Take the shop example again and you pick up that bag of sweets - you're on your own, no-one else is stealing from that shop so you have a high chance of being caught. Then pirate something online, and at any one time thousands of people across the world will be pirating some form of file, so the chance of being caught is dramatically reduced, at least in the short term.
This is what I was going to post. It's much easier to get away with piracy online than it is to steal a chocolate bar from a shop.

I have pirated in the past, either because I didn't have the money for the thing (thus the company selling the product would never have got a sale from me) or because I wanted to test thing thing - happens with games a lot. You buy them and they're ****.

[The Professor]

Do you completely ignore my posts?

Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 are 99% backwards compatible, you WILL NOT see any noticable difference if you save as .doc in Word 2007 or 2010.

Also, either way, your I.T. Admins should have imaged them with the Office compatibility packs.

Oh yeah they're compatible with .doc files but Office 03 can't open .docx files. It was the bane of my life for a few years :'(

[Recursion]

Oh yeah they're compatible with .doc files but Office 03 can't open .docx files. It was the bane of my life for a few years :'(

It can with the Office Compatibility Pack ;)

[The Professor]

It can with the Office Compatibility Pack ;)

No joke, it took the IT technicians until last week to install spellcheck (it vanished at the beginning of the year). We spent a full day going through all our coursework spellchecking it, an office compatibility pack is wayyy out of the question.