Microsoft Providing Patches to Pirates

No, not eye patches. Microsoft has decided to provide patches through Auto Update to anyone Windows PC that signs up for it - even pirated copies of Windows. What they won't allow is unlicensed machines to go to the Windows Update web site and pull down patches. see http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Shackles_Unlicensed_Windows/1106705467

This is a smart compromise - Microsoft gets great visibility into where piracy is occurring, has a channel directly into those pirated machines but it still gets to say that it is doing the world right by allowing pirated copies to get secure.