Re: Valid Product Keys for Windows XP SP2 Professional Volume License Edition

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Gregg Hill wrote:
<snip>

Using that line of thinking, if I buy one TV from a store, then take 90 more and give them to my friends without being paid anything for them, I am not stealing. Interesting.

Not an applicable comparison. TVs are a physical item. A license is not a physical item.


Your statement is incorrect and should read, "If one were making copies and **distributing them** with the key without being a reseller **or under any other circumstances,** that would be stealing." Anyone who uses it without a vlaid license is in effect stealing it.

In principal, it is no different than walking into a computer store and buying one XP package, then stuffing 30 more into a bag, walking out the door, and giving them to anyone who wants one. You paid for one license, but you took 30 others to distribute. Whether for profit or not, it is unethical, even if it is not illegal.

Would you do that? Why not? The end result is the same. One was purchased, the rest were stolen.

Again, not a realistic comparison. Retail theft does not equate to preserving one's fair use rights.

Name one court case where in any person using software for non-commercial purposes in the privacy of their own home not strictly in line with the license has been taken to court and lost.


I have said over and over again that a law need not exist to make something wrong. To site a Biblical example (not to thump a Bible, but just to prove a point), when Cain killed Abel, there were no lasws against murder. Was it OK to kill his brother, then?

Yet again, not a realistic comparison. Murder does not equate to preserving one's fair use rights.

<snip>

If I sign a contract and go against it, but the person wronged decides not to pursue it, I have still breached my agreement. I would still be unethical. The person wronged does not have to prove my lack of ethics in court for it to be an unethical act.


Does this negate the fact that it is unethical to infringe upon one's fair use rights with a license to begin with?

<snip>
No, I advocate that the EULA from MS for windows is unconscionable.

Then you should not agree to it, then renege on your word. You should avoid the product and use only other manufacturers' software.

I said I don't agree to it in principle. I have not broken it.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Valid Product Keys for Windows XP SP2 Professional Volume License Edition
    ... under any other circumstances,** that would be stealing." ... it without a vlaid license is in effect stealing it. ... You paid for one license, ... preserving one's fair use rights. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Story Time
    ... In this case, the General Public License says that "you" can freely use "his" code, but that if you distribute the subsequent binaries to anyone else, you must share your changes with "them". ... the GPL encourages you to charge money for shipping your code to your distributees. ... difference ins the kernel between the two versions. ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Valid Product Keys for Windows XP SP2 Professional Volume License Edition
    ... Please tell me what you consider to be stealing. ... break the End User License Agreement, regardless of whether or not it is ... something that belongs to someone else. ... That agreement gives you permission to install ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Another Anime is Dead Rant
    ... <snip, but leaving significant attribution> ... license without exploring other methods of extracting value from it. ... Anime sinks...)? ... don't try to sell it the same way. ...
    (rec.arts.anime.misc)
  • Re: Is stork a troll? (was Re: Trolltech QT license question)
    ... I wouldn't consider it stealing if someone did it with MY ... The moral content that you and you alone infer from the GPL is ... (Apache license)? ... changes to the community even if they keep their modifications in-house ...
    (comp.os.linux.development.apps)