PingBack from http://www.techaddress.com/2007/06/13/taking-a-detailed-look-at-windows-vista-dvd-hologram/

I've wondered - is this kind of piracy really a problem (as opposed to filesharing)? Companies selling pirated Vista copies to unsuspecting users? I couldn't imagine a company that does this to live longer than a week.

But i live in Switzerland, so things might be different here.

It's impressive how high the resolution of this holographic image is.

"Incorporating optical security into our physical media is just one of many efforts to ensure that Microsoft customers get what they paid for.  "

Actually it so microsoft can get their pound of flesh.

That was a pritty cleaver idea! How did you get that image printed on a tiny seface area?

Recently, corners of the interwebs were abuzz with conspiracy theories about a teeny-tiny photo image

so what's the problem? I think it doesn't mind in that DVD, just 'cause some people put their photo here. xD

There's been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere ever since a tiny image of three guys was discovered on

I find this similar to the security markings on new money (of the US currency variety)... useful idea, but who is going to check?  In this analogy, banks would check big bills (I think... I usually don't get any farther than the ATM in the entranceway myself) and so big companies might want to check a few of their Vista DVDs to make sure they're genuine.

But for the majority of money transactions and end users, they're not going to notice if some 1mm square marks are missing from their Vista DVD.  On the other hand, it only takes one user (perhaps suspicious of a very cheap copy) to notice it and notify the proper authorities that something fishy is going on with vendor X.

You would appreciate a US permanent residents card (green card) the microscopic pictures of all the past presidents and state flags are incredible, pretty hard to forge I would imagine.

Makes me wish I could find my magnifying glass, so I could check out the my Office 2007 discs to see if they're real legit discs or not, they look real!

The security features on the Microsoft discs are great, however making the box packaging out of plastic was kinda  a mistake....let me explain why I believe so...

I recently traded a copy of Vista Home Upgrade for Office Small Bussiness 2007 Upgrade, good straight trade I thought!  What I failed to notice at the time was that the COA was ripped off the packaging.  The trader later told me his little brother ripped it off, and he didnt know where it was.  The rest of the package is fine though, seems legit as it was unopened.

Making the box packaging out of plastic, combined with the big piece of circular tape over the top of the COA, means that the COA can easily be accidentally removed from boxes!

I guess thats what you get when using craigslist!

My Office 2007 Discs have some writing on the inner rim

X12-60422 (RM.P1) 02  , 0202   , (some really small letters), a barcode, some art, ASP5328 ,  some art, φ , (another greek letter) , Microsoft/Genuine,

Is it legit?  I hope so.

newscientist2000:

Regardless of whether your CDs are legit or not, your licence isn't! The discs mean nothing, it's the licence (ie COA) that has value and proves ownership, so without it you aint legal! I would demand your money back straightaway; you've been duped.

Besides I thought the install key was printed on the CoA sticker, without it how have you been able to install?

Correction: It's only OEMs where the key is on the CoA sticker, for retail they're separate.

I'd also check the following to see whether what you've got still counts as a genuine licence or not:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/re/220d451e-930f-4a37-8256-a9ce067690ba.mspx

Thanks adam.mt, Im pretty sure the discs are legit, just some kid ripped off the COA due to a box design flaw.

I don't think piracy will be a big problem until Vista becomes viable as a business OS. Compatibility is a big problem with Vista which will hinder its adoption among business users. I am getting ready to purchase new workstations for my organization and will have to order them with XP for compatibility with a legacy application.

Microsoft ha anunciado que la pequeña foto de tres personas que mide tan sólo un milímetro es una de las muchas imágenes que se incluyen en el diseño holográfico, que tiene como objetivo dificultar la replicación de los originales de los DVDs de Vista

Edit: Mystery solved http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/06/13/the-devil-is-in

Whilst the DVD hologram works for the physical aspects of protecting Microsofts assets it does absolutely nothing for assisting businesses to manage the software assets within their business walls and systems.

Microsofts senior managment and development team (at a very high level) has not yet grasped that there is a simple solution to piracy/installations within the workplace that they could use almost immediately.

We have been trying to get MS to listen to this solution for years over this issue and yet they still are hell bent on alienating the business/government sector who aren't that keen on taking up Vista.  

Some IT directors have published memorandums putting an embargo on Vista installations "until later on" and these are big seats of around 50,000 users. This is likely to be more than the early adopter syndrome with alternates such as Open Source becoming a viable alternative.

Activation/Validation issues in their own right are causing some grief and that won't be overturned (according to Cori Hartje) so you "need a sweetener" for business to make them come on board with Vista.

The groundswell to Open Source is becoming a big issue as many sites have now been given approval in principle to explore migration to this as options and these are traditional Windows seats.

Contact me offline to get a perspective on how to overcome one aspect of the piracy problem.

Algún blogger español miraba de cerca su DVD de Windows Vista, cuando notó algo extraño. El holograma que figura en la superficie del DVD parecía contener imágenes minúsculas. Así, cuando publicó estas imágenes en su blog, nació un misterio. Microsoft..

The holographic images used on the Windows Vista Ultimate DVD are discussed.

前两天我们在Vista安装盘上的秘密中，给大家介绍过WindowsVista的DVD安装光盘上有一个用肉眼几乎看不到的三人合影图片。现在微软终于出面说明这件事儿了，秘密将不再是一个秘密。　...

In a recent post to his blog, Alex Kochis, Senior Product Manager for Windows Genuine Advantage, discusses

Not surprisingly, the year 2007 started with January. Microsoft and Ford launched SyncMyRide.com during...

Not surprisingly, the year 2007 started with January . Microsoft and Ford launched SyncMyRide.com during