Microsoft Confirms WinXP CD-ROMs Marking
ActiveWin | at | by Mike
Looks like Microsoft has confirmed that there was tracing technology included on the builds given out to beta testers at the end of the Windows XP beta to track down who was leaking them. Here is the post from Microsoft on it:
I wish that you'd chosen to email us privately. Yes, as other posters have surmised, this was used to track down leaky beta testers. There are a number of people no longer participating in the beta because they were directly traced to deliberately leaking builds. However, disclosing the existance of the tracing technology simply means that we will no longer be able to remove such people from the beta as easily.