Microsoft Sued Over Windows Genuine Advantage “Spyware”; Seeks Class Action Status

A computer user, Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson, is suing Microsoft Corp. over the company’s Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy tool, alleging that it violates laws against spyware.

The suit was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle (court documents). It seeks class-action status for claims that Microsoft didn’t adequately disclose details of the tool when it was delivered to PC users through the company’s Automatic Update system.

Windows Genuine Advantage is designed to check the validity of a computer user’s copy of the operating system. Almost immediately after its release people cracked the WGA code to bypass its check. The tool became subject of heightened controversy earlier this month, after PC users began noticing that it was making daily contact with Microsoft’s servers, sending unspecified uinformation without their knowledge and without any disclosure in its license terms, even if their software was valid. Recently I mentioned about a tool to remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notification tool from your computer.

Microsoft issued a software update this week to address some of the concerns computer users had raised about the Windows Genuine Advantage notification tool. Along with comes rumors that Microsoft plans to disable copies of Windows operating system the WGA tool deems as pirated.

“Microsoft effectively installed the WGA software on consumers’ systems without providing consumers any opportunity to make an informed choice about that software,” the suit alleges.

The lead lawyer representing Johnson in the suit against Microsoft, Scott Kamber of Kamber & Associates LLC in New York, was co-lead counsel for consumers in the lawsuit over Sony Corp.’s surreptitious placement of copy-protection “rootkit” software on PCs, through music CDs.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, makes claims under statutes including the Washington Consumer Protection Act and California Unfair Competition Law, in addition to anti-spyware statutes in both states. link