If nothing else this sets a very dangerous precedent.
Crap like DRM is bad enough, but if this sort of behaviour is allowed (e.g. by Microsoft including it in updates), and is considered "acceptable", what next?
Printer bricked after using knock-off cartridge?
Hard disk wiped if MS discovers your license number is a copy?
Phone bricked after using a fake battery?
I used to be a panasonic camera (digicam) fan and owned quite a few of them. then, one day, they decided to chip their batteries and the aftermarket ones stopped working. we no longer had any choice in how much we would pay for camera li-ion batteries. at that point, I stopped buying pany cams.
I've heard that the battery makers have worked around this, but I have given up on pany cams and won't ever come back.
pany doesn't care, of course. but I just can't give pany my money, at least for cameras.
its a shame when a good vendor turns to the dark side.