I think you that those of you who wanted to download Microsoft Vista Beta 2 encountered at least once the “Server Busy” message.

To help those who encountered this message, Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington made available a Vista Beta 2 torrent at VistaTorrent.com. But Microsoft got upset and forced the two to close the shop and go home.

They didn’t cared that all it was legit and that they even made available a MD5 checksums for verification.

Microsoft got angry because they said that they couldn’t guarantee its authenticity from the time that it was initiated through BitTorrent until the time that the download completed. I guess that they were more pissed off because there were alternative ways to obtain the same files other then their servers. And they couldn’t maintain the monopole. Couldn’t be the only one to offer the spectacular, amazing, long awaited Vista Beta 2.

To solve the problem Microsoft “asked” Chris and Jake to stop offering the torrent. Here are some quotes from the mail they received:

Microsoft has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft.

We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that you take expeditious action to remove or disable access to the material described above, and thereby prevent the illegal reproduction and distribution of this software via your company’s network.

Our cooperation in this matter is a given; the tracker is dead. We were only trying to help Microsoft by doing this, assuming the costs and responsibilities associated with serving and seeding larger files. We did not alter, crack, hack, or patch any of Microsoft’s files - merely provided a mirror for them when Microsoft was worried that “people might have problems with World Cup viewing, etc.” due to the high demand of Windows Vista Beta 2. If the reprinting of your “Cease and Desist Letter” also infringes on Microsoft’s copyright, we will remove it as well.