Is the new "indeterminate" flag a way to address those problems? Cherry said no.

"You don't even need the real numbers of false positives to prove that in this case, an incredibly small percentage is actually a very large number of users," he said. "The reality is that there are false positives.

"I could see users putting up with false positives if there was some other value in WGA," Cherry said. But, he added, as far he can tell, there isn't.

While the messages from Microsoft may sound confusing or conflicting, Cherry said he is convinced the company has a one-track mind on piracy, which may not necessarily be a good thing for users. "Sometimes you have the right to do something, but enforcing the right raises so much bad will, why not just forget about it?" Cherry said.

Microsoft officials were not immediately available for comment.