Legal situation: PC with wrong O/S instaled?

[FatRakoon]

Friend bought a Laptop from a shop

Its got XP installed, From a Dell PC and its a cracked version.

Bottom of the laptop says Windows 2000

I had a little go at the guy and he pointed out that the O/S is only on there to show the laptop working and that no one is forcing us to use it, which in my eyes is kind of pathetically trying to cover his back in many ways because, lets be honest, how many people buy a computer and not use the O/S thats on it? Very few Id say, if any.

( Im talkign about the general mr or mrs on teh street who knows nothign about PCs because anyone who knows anything would not be stupid enough to be buying one of those things in the first place )

Anyway...

This guy was a mouthy git and arrogant as the day is long, but what kind of rug can we pull from under him on this, or do we not have a case?

I mean... These Laptops I assume all have a licence on the bottom of them, so why can he not put the correct O/S on them? why are they all runing this "Cracked" version of DELL XP2 ?

See what I mean?

 

[Mattus]

It's going to be easier to sell a laptop with XP than 2000 - XP is what everyone's familiar with, so nobody wants to use 2000 as a home OS.

What he's doing is illegal. The fact that there's a 2000 license on the bottom doesn't change the fact that's he's selling machines with pirate copies of XP. Even if you don't use the OS, he still sold it to you along with the machine.

Report him for selling pirate software. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/homeuser/how-to-report-piracy.mspx

MS take this kind of thing quite seriously: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/homeuser/illegal-traders.mspx

 

[FatRakoon]

Thanks mattus