Will this move by Microsoft help or hurt security?

Apparently Microsoft is changing its mind and will now make it harder for patches to be downloaded from the Windows update site. It will appently require the copy of windows to be authenticated before the updates can be downloaded. Now you may wonder why this matters, and certainly Microsoft has the right to protect their business. But if there are thousands (more likely hundreds of thousands or even millions) of illegal copies of Windows out there that can't be patched, won't that mean more security problems? Considering an infected zombie pc can spread viruses to thousands of computers, you would think it would be in their best interests to allow anyone to patch their system. Now this system hasn't started yet, but according to Microsoft and this article, that will change before year end.

Here is the article:
http://www.securitypipeline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=58800006