Re: Legality of installing XP bundled with one computer on another

Kerry Brown wrote:

Alias wrote:

Kerry Brown wrote:

I am one of the few

people who posts here who thinks activation is a good thing. I sell
many more copies of Windows and Office because of it so it has
greatly helped my bottom line.

IOW, you make money ripping people off.


Please tell me how selling them Windows and Office on a new pc is ripping them off. Previous to activation most customers didn't buy Office and some didn't buy an OS. When I asked they said they were going to use a friend's copy. In most cases they knew this was somehow wrong but were prepared to set aside their ethics for monetary gain. If they were installing software from an old pc taken out of service this would be one thing but most of them were clearly running multiple copies.


Activation is a tool to fight piracy. 

Not true. The pirates just crack away and laugh. Activation only
inconveniences the paying customer.


It has almost stopped the type of casual piracy I list above. It has also reduced the number of shops preloading hard drives with unlicensed software.

Kerry


When people don't obey speed limits and safety belt laws even though facing the possibilty of $100+ fines if caught, why would they give a rip about the EULA rules over a $90 piece of software? They'll probably never get caught breaking the EULA. The odds are that they'll get a speeding ticket sooner or later, though. I'm not so sure it's a question of ethics and morality but rather that of human nature. Put another way, if you found a $100 bill on the street, what would you do?

Activation only serves to discourage causual piracy, it doesn't completely and effectively prevent it in many cases, and as many have said, it does nothing to thwart the real pirates. Not that I think M$ doesn't have the right to try to ensure that the EULA applies, their current means of doing so is terribly flawed, adversely effects many honest paying customers, is giving M$ a bad rep (like they need any more of that) and I think it should be abandoned.

Steve N.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Vistas EULA Product Activation Worries
    ... That's no different than the current XP EULA. ... As I said, just like Windows XP. ... validation check. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Longhorn
    ... >I wasn't really referring to Windows itself. ... I know about the EULA. ... But to control every single aspect of>>> when/where/how I ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: How do I transfer my VPC license?
    ... Yes, there is Steve :-) The Virtual PC software license itself, not the ... Virtual Machines Windows (as he doesn't have any, ... the EULA entitles the first owner of the Virtual PC ... > Steve Jain, Microsoft MVP for Virtual PC for Windows ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.virtualpc)
  • Re: Basic CD player for OS X 10.4 ?
    ... There is, of course, the "Decline EULA" ... Is Force Quit generally a bad idea? ... I was using a Mac SE/30 running System 6. ... even Windows has it now. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: I Told You So, I Told You So
    ... The EULA includes terms that allow MS to audit systems, in my opinion MS ... you've just been predicting that *future* pirated versions of Windows ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
Loading