Licensing question

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Just to satisfy my curiosity (since I am not in the market for a new Windows package at present):

My local computer store people tell me that they cannot sell me an OEM version of Windows except with a complete machine that they configure.

At another computer store I heard a store clerk tell a customer, "This is an OEM version, so you have to buy it with some item of computer hardware -- but a $0.25 package of screws fulfills that requirement."

I questioned the person who was helping me in this latter store about the discrepancy between his store's practice and what I had been told in the first-mentioned one. His response: "My contract with Microsoft specifies only that I have to sell OEM versions with some item of computer-related hardware. A package of case screws is computer-related hardware."

Is one of these stores interpreting the license requirements incorrectly? Or are there in fact licenses with such widely differing terms?

Perce
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