Vista Software Protection Platform disables Windows Defender

Let's see if I have this straight. In its ongoing effort to thwart pirates, Microsoft is going to prevent its anti-malware bits from working on a PC running pirated Windows Vista? Sez Computerworld:

Customers who decline to or cannot successfully validate their copy of Vista during installation will be blocked from using certain features [including] Aero ... ReadyBoost ... and Windows Defender, which protects against viruses and spyware.

So it's fine for PCs running pirated versions of Vista to spew spam and malware into my inbox? Stupid, stupid, stupid...