Shoutbox

quote:

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Microsoft has switched off access to Windows Live Messenger in Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea.

The software giant announced the policy change in a blog post spotted by our friends at LiveSide.

If any users in these countries attempts to sign into Messenger they will receive the following message:

810003c1: We were unable to sign you in to the .NET Messenger Service.

Work arounds are already available, signing in with a 3rd party client or setting your location in your Windows Live account to any other region will allow you to sign in again.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Neowin that the company has discontinued Messenger services to certain countries due to United States sanctions.

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Courtesy: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/05/22/microsof...mbargoed-countries

I know we are not a news syndication forum but this is something worthwhile to mention.

As stated updating your region in your WIndows Live account will allow you to sign back in. This is quite odd that Microsoft is taking this stance... they are going to lose a huge userbase...

Microsoft shouldn't mix with politics . If they don't want to do business with these countries I might understand, but this is a free service.

Matty, you should start reading LiveSide
(uhuh yours truly writes there, this particular article too )

I don't understand why they did this, I don't see a free service as doing business either. All we get from Microsoft is that it's because of the embargo and that details of these sanctions are available from the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control. Once and if we hear more you'll find it on LiveSide again, we are on top of it!