Windows Licensing for Hobbyists

Pyroblaze said:
This "hobbyist" will just have to start shopping on torrents if it ends up i'm supposed to pay £150 for an OS.
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No - the thief will continue to use the torrent sites.
There will always be scum out there who feel that they shouldn't have to pay.
Cost is usually a great argument - as I've said before, just because you can't afford something doesn't give you the right to be a thief.
If you just don't think it's worth the money then don't use it - if you use it then obviously it is worth the money.

Don't tar all "hobbyists" with the same brush.
Many of them are not thieving scum.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I know, hence why I was surprised that they changed their minds. I think the article I quoted in the first post has been around for a bit but I've only recently noticed it on the OEM Licensing homepage.
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Well, I reckon the legal situation is reasonably cut-and-dried at least for anyone who bought an OEM licence having read the original T&Cs whilst they were up on MS's website, or on any paperwork they were given - MS can't vary the terms post-contract, and even if they had a term which said they were entitled to vary the terms (ahem) after the event at their discretion, that would be considered an unfair, err, term, hence void and unenforceable under English law at least.

I'm honestly surprised this hasn't received more widespread coverage (major NO SWEARING in fact) unless it's simply an error on MS's part which they didn't bother to rectify, as most "hobbyists" won't have access to the OEM pages... :confused:
 
I guess that most people will just build a PC for their mate, and vice versa. Seems to be enough to remain a legal user of OEM.

Still, hardly anyone will actually read this webpage on Microsoft.com. Everyone will just continue buying the OEM CDs unless Microsoft takes a harder stance - which they won't.
 
Vertigo1 said:
Assuming for a second that you're serious, the details in the OP state "unrelated party" which to me means related in a business or personal capacity, so you couldn't "sell" it to your brother in the same way you couldn't buy it through your employer and get them to "sell" it back to you.
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I wasn't ;), but it serves me right for not fully reading the post :D.

I'll just sell them to a friend of a friend then :D;).
 
All of a sudden my neighbour has become a system builder for me. I am totally unrelated to him, but he such a good fellow that he will now be building them for me without charging me labour.
 
stoofa said:
Since Windows 2000 MS OS's have been pretty much bug free on release.
Certainly nothing show stopping and that includes 2000, XP and Vista (despite you being one of these Vista haters - I'm guessing for no good reason).
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Tell that to the thousands of people whose Vista kept reverting to restricted mode, requiring a restart of the software licensing service on almost every boot to "workaround" it. Still, lucky for them it was fixed in SP1... how long a wait was that exactly?

Like ME, Vista has been a bit of a polished turd really, but Microsoft are good at forcing people to buy their turds, infact I still can't seem to find DX10 for my legally purchased copy of XP that I'd like to get my money's-worth from perhaps you can help?

Like I said I bought the OEM version of Vista and feel ripped off to be honest, so I can understand your defensiveness having forked out the full whack for the retail version.
 
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Burnsy2023 said:
Simple, why buy a licence you are going to void and render worthless? Why not pirate if you aren't going to follow the rules?
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Getting a pirate version of Windows that passes activation is easy. If you're fairly in-the-know, you'd buy a legitimate Windows license in order to be morally in the right rather than anything else. I think most people are just going to be satisfied that they've paid for their software, and aren't gonna be too bothered about a fairly obscure licensing term.
 
Tbh does it matter that much? As long as you buy a license then imo you're pretty much safe. If microsoft are that stupid that they keep fiddling with the restrictions then they're going to be shooting themselves in the foot - why worry about which license you can and cant have when you can just pirate it? Thats how a lot of people are going to think
 
mmj_uk said:
infact I still can't seem to find DX10 for my legally purchased copy of XP that I'd like to get my money's-worth from perhaps you can help?
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That's a stupid comment.

Mattus said:
Getting a pirate version of Windows that passes activation is easy. If you're fairly in-the-know, you'd buy a legitimate Windows license in order to be morally in the right rather than anything else. I think most people are just going to be satisfied that they've paid for their software, and aren't gonna be too bothered about a fairly obscure licensing term.
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I'm just one of these people who don't like to do things half-arsed.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Simple, why buy a licence you are going to void and render worthless? Why not pirate if you aren't going to follow the rules?
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Because Microsoft still get the money if I buy it? A software licence has never stood up in a single court case anyway.

I'm not going to buy my OS again every time I buy a new motherboard, and I can't really spare the extra for a retail version. Surely it's better to buy the OEM version than just to pirate it every time? It's still running a legit key and gets activated by Microsoft after all so you are legally in the clear, and in fact if MS activate it even they can't tell that you are breaking the license terms.

If I had to crack the OEM software then you are right, I wouldn't bother and would buy it again. But it activates, and runs 100%; I don't see how that is half assed.

I'm an MS fan personally and I've always bought every OS I've used. I may not have run them under the license terms but I do not care and neither do the courts, it's just a money making scheme by MS.
 
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Please tell me if you phone MS and they give you an activation key how they can tell that you are not licenced? Genuine question, don't understand why that part got the :rolleyes: of all things.

The fact you are not licensed is true I know that.

Sales restrictions in EULA Illegal and Unenforcable:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/11/28/us_court_ruling_nixes_software/

The judge, in the case Adobe vs Softman heard in the Central District of California, has ruled that consumers can resell bundled software, no matter what the EULA, or End User License Agreement, stipulates. Specifically, the ruling decrees that software purchases be treated as sales transactions, rather than explicit license agreements.
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US case I know but theres been few cases in the UK.
 
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Strife212 said:
Please tell me if you phone MS and they give you an activation key how they can tell that you are not licenced? Genuine question, don't understand why that part got the :rolleyes: of all things.
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*Broken Record time*
Activation is a method to prevent unlicensed users from using illegitimate software, not to prove adherence to the licence agreement.

A subtle but important difference.
 
Surely you could just build the PC, install the OEM software and then sell the system to someone in the same household for 1p. That way your meeting MS's requirements for OEM licencing? ;)

EDIT : Haven't read the entire thread so this has probably been covered already!
 
Meeko said:
Surely you could just build the PC, install the OEM software and then sell the system to someone in the same household for 1p. That way your meeting MS's requirements for OEM licencing? ;)

EDIT : Haven't read the entire thread so this has probably been covered already!
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It has, the first post states it must be an 'unrelated' third party
 
mmj_uk said:
infact I still can't seem to find DX10 for my legally purchased copy of XP that I'd like to get my money's-worth from perhaps you can help?
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Haha!

If you figure out how, you can help me with a couple of other things. I've got a mobile that I bought in 2001, but I just can't figure out how to enable GPS or 3G on it. Not to mention my telly that I bought eight years ago which refuses to support HDMI, and my Xbox that just won't play those Xbox 360 games, however hard I try!

Come on... are you serious?
 
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