/puts asbestos suit on. here are a few thoughts on just why M$ would consider doing something like this. Firstly some posters are saying that M$ is already very slow in patching its os for vulnerabilities. Whether this is even true or not does not matter, but it does mean they are already IN the anti-virus business, because everybody blames them for os vulnerabilities anyway. It was only a matter of time until some creative person at M$ came to the conclusion that if they were already in the anti-virus biz. they might as well get paid for it. This is a pretty smart move imo. By separating it from the os they get 5 major benefits. 1 the possibility of anti-trust legal problems are removed. 2 they get a new source of revenue for work they were doing anyway. 3 this shifts pressure from their os having to deal with malicious attacks. The blanket statement can be if you are at risk to said attacks please buy the anti-virus software. 4 They can now easily get away with charging extra for it; if anyone does not like this policy, they can just state they are doing this to a) not be sued, b) because they are nice guys and want to give the consumer/competition a fair shake. 5 Further reducing piracy, all of these auto up dates &c are one of the most effective ways of geting poeple to buy software. But there are hacks out there to get auto updates anyway. Piracy will always be out there, M$ knows this, and doesnt really give a $hit about the hardcore pirates anyway--they are the group that will never pay. The casual pirate, however, that gets their corporate xp off kazaa, will be hung out to dry. Someone also posted some conspiracy idea about M$ also employing those who produce Virii. What you may call conspiracy is business as usual at M$. They can buy any virus creator on the planet, anytime they want. In fact they have a history of hiring those who caused them serious competition. There is nothing unethical about this, it is simple business practice; any company will want the best employees. This also happened with banking software, many hackers who were not very good criminals were caught stealing funds from banks. The banks offered non prosecution, and a decent salary for helping them prevent anymore such hacking. The previous "security experts" that were working for the bank became living history like Gary Coleman. What is different about M$ is the fact that they have an UNHEALTHY cash position. I dont know what it is at this moment, but a year ago their cash was at 48 BILLION. Now the scary part of this was that very smart finacial advisors told the company that this was bad--it was too much cash to just have lying around. I am not a very good financial advisor I suppose, because I would never tell anyone with 48 billion in cash lying around that they had a problem. I would call it a solution. The next question is how will it affect other anti-virus "experts". M$'s answer is simple business; we dont care. They are under no obligation to baby sit other companies, and the world is a harsh place. Being a corporation, they have a specific modus operandi; to do what is best for them. That is to expand their business, have a healthy bottom line, and protect themselves from attacks on various levels, both known and unpredictable. This is not immoral, but amoral. To put it in prespective, if M$ wanted to be percieved as a moral company they could use just their cashola to colonize Mars, invade/liberate Iraq, or even wipe out world hunger and employ very many subsidized farmers at the same time.