Legality of Norton Int security oem

Clark the White · 21 Feb 2007 at 18:20

Hi folks,
I bought Norton Internet Security 2006 Oem last year and the virus definitions ran out the other week. If I were to renew them for a year from symantecs site it would cost £35, yet there is Internet Security 2007 Oem out for around £20 which has updates that last for a year?

would it still be legal to buy 2007 oem and install that, and if so can you forsee any problems. i.e. when I bought 2006 I had to give symantec my email address to get updates, yet if I buy 2007 and they see that I had 2006 would it cause a problem do you think? or do I have to buy a non-oem edition?

I will be ordering some components for my computer at the same time (upgrade) if that makes any difference.

I don't want to have anything to do with "Warez" or break the law.

thanks for any help

MikeOCUK · 21 Feb 2007 at 18:37

nope, they prefer people using new versions anyway. They wont track your email address as your suggesting.

mrochester · 21 Feb 2007 at 18:41

You shouldn't be paying anything, you should be putting any Norton software you have in the bin. It is bloated and ineffective.

t31os · 21 Feb 2007 at 19:15

Email them explain the cost to them, and why its cheaper for you to buy a fresh OEM copy, you never know they might offer a discount as you are an existing user.

They stand to lose you as a customer due to the costs (and there are better alternatives for sure) and i'd think rather then lose you they'd at least offer you a cheap way to upgrade. I'd be surprised if they recommend you just buy the OEM or pay the update fee.

Alternatively there's cheaper / better programs, a quick search on this forum should pull up all the info you need to make your decision...

Steve Watford · 21 Feb 2007 at 19:19

You should burn that disk. NOD32 is so much better and still as cheap.

DAS · 21 Feb 2007 at 19:25

I did exacly that last year (buying OEM). Didn't for one moment think there was anything dubious about it - I was buying new legal software.

I do agree that it's a hog and will probably dump it when my sub expires, although my internet provider also supplies a free version of Norton anti-virus.

I didn't realise what it ws doing until I uninstalled it from XP a few days in advance of my Vista upgrade and my BSODs on startup suddenly disappeaed. They'd started a few weeks earlier and I had so many other theories, but Norton wasn't one of them. It seems to be fine in Vista though.