Vista's 'black screen of death' is no anti-piracy measure

The hoax started yesterday when Australian PC World printed an e-mail which appeared to be sent from the Vole to a large Vista OEM distributor.

The email claimed that from now on if someone was using a pirated copy of Vista they would get a black screen after an hour of browsing; no start menu or task bar and no desktop.

The email asked OEMs to communicate this anti-piracy initiative from Microsoft to their resellers.

The news travelled fast, but Microsoft was quick to dismiss the rumour, telling Wired magazine that the Aussie hacks had received inaccurate information.

The Vole has not rolled out any updates to Windows Vista's anti-piracy platform, the spokesVole said.

More here. µ