RE: Re: [OT] Windoes XP OEM/Non-OEM

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Erm - Can we be careful, again, to make the distinction between "I'm
happy to do this" and "this is legal"...

> We "dont know" that we arent
> allowed to buy this on its own, so its not our problem, if we can
> do without a large manual, we just get a bargain!

Erm. Probably not true.

You're allowed to _buy_ it, but then you're expected to read the licence
(given that the software say on it that you should, AND you've clicked a
button confirming that you've read and accepted the licence terms.

The licence tends to state that "This (OEM) licence is only valid if
purchased with..."

As such, you _are_ technically breaking the terms of the licence by
installing it.

You have, therefore, no "right to use the software."

In practice, such a matter would be _exceedingly_unlikely_ to come to
court, unless, say, you were a corporate who had bought a hundred OEM
licences from a computer fair, and started running your business on them
- don't laugh - I know companies whose policy WAS to run pirated
software back in the late 80s!

If you bought this as an individual, used it, push were to come to
shove, and you used the "didn't know any better", then I guess
that the
court would say "OK - you owe Microsoft the list price of this
software
- pay up", and you'd have to, but would be unlikely to award any other
damages. (If, however, you were an IT manager, then the "didn't know
any
better" defence  probably wouldn't stand up.

You would, of course, have the recourse of proceeding against the vendor
to reclaim what you originally paid, but in practice, they'd be in
prison already, and no longer trading ;-)

Regards,

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher
*****