With the recent ‘Windows 7 upgrade hacking’ comments by Eric Ligman, a global partner experience lead at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, having irked a number of bloggers, Ligman has clarified that his comments were not aimed at anyone in particular nor did his use of the word ‘hack’ hint at any particular blogger.

Saying that he was referring to the tips that were being doled out to the Windows users – to clean install the new Windows 7 OS with the help of the cheaper upgrade software -, Ligman remarked in his recent blog post: “For anyone out there thinking my post was trying to 'make an example' of someone as a 'hack' or that I was calling someone specifically a 'hack,' sorry to disappoint you.”

Ligman said that since ‘hacks’ appeared on the Web, enticing users to go in for a lower priced ‘illegal’ alternative of installing the full version of Windows 7, he was trying to put across to the users the fact that the technical possibility of the upgrade ‘hacking’ procedure did not necessarily mean that it was legal too.

Downplaying the entire episode, Ligman further said that, being the representative of Microsoft's Byzantine software licensing program, he was cautioning the users that the use of inappropriately licensed software can likely summon the specter of Business Software Alliance audits and other legal troubles.