Microsoft, lets sit down and chat for a moment. I care for you, I really do, but you have been a bit inconsiderate for a while now. I have let it slide, hoping that you would grow out of this phase, but the time has come for me to say something about it.

I own legal copies of your software, but you make me prove it to you incessantly. Stop punishing your paying customers! Seriously, stop. I know you have to try to curb piracy, but it should be seamless and invisible. I know those are two words that are almost absent from your vocabulary, but I am sure you can look them up on Google.

Oops, did I say the G word? Sorry, I forgot, I know that topic scares you, my bad.

I will leave up to you how you make the experience seamless, but I do have one suggestion for you to curb “piracy.” I think many people pirate you software because you make it so damned hard to use software that you already own the rights to use! Most PC’s today are sold with a copy of Windows on it. Annoyingly, usually the systems only come with recovery discs, even more annoyingly recovery partitions, or a CD that only works on the type of computer that the version of Windows was purchased with.

Does that sound too complicated? Yeah, but thats not my fault Microsoft, its yours.

Create a Microsoft download service, similar to what Valve does with Steam. This would allow people who already legally own copies of Windows to download and burn another copy of whatever they own. This could be extended to office as well. I know that I have many friend’s who have XP professional cooperate edition installed on their systems, simply because they lost their cds, upgraded their motherboards, or whatever. Now in your eyes they are pirates, even though over the years they have purchased 3 or 4 copies of XP.

Treat your customers with a little more respect please. If you don’t want your customers to be pirates, then don’t make us want to be pirates.

On a side note, you are a software company, that is your core competancy. What the hell are you doing with the Zune?

- The Digital Kitty