John R Pierce wrote: > I'd like to know the source of this story.... Sounds like urban folklore to > me... The OEM Windows license is bundled with and tied to the hardware and > automatically transfers with it. Now, if these recycling projects were > taking bulk OEM CD's purchased off the grey market, and bundling them with > recycled hardware without having a redistribution agreement, thats another > story entirely. Ditto, if the EULA for the original system was lost and > not kept with it when the system was recycled...
I think the problem stems from the fact that most donated PCs with MS OSes do not arrive with the full documentation of the original OS license. Organizations who accept and use these PCs without all the proper paperwork could technically be found in violation by MS or its BSA goons. Hence they are hesitant to accept any donations without all the paperwork. Since the OS is tied to the machine, the donating company cannot reuse the OS license if they donate the machine. This further complicates things since the donating company must prove that they have transferred all the licensing paperwork, unless they wipe the drives of every machine. If the donating party does not buy new licenses for the machines that replace the donated ones, or they fail to transfer/destroy all of the bits relating to the donated machines, then they are in violation as well. By making it hard on both the donating and receiving parties, MS ends up selling new licenses to everyone, which is probably a contributing factor to why they're stinky filthy rich. Brian >From <http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=DonatedComputers> Q. What does the donor need to do to donate a PC with the operating system? A. PC owners have to transfer their license rights to the operating system to your school along with the PC. They may do so as specified in their End-User License Agreement (received at the time of purchase) as part of a permanent sale or transfer of the PC. Q. What if the donor can't find the backup CDs, End-Use License Agreement, End-User manual and the Certificate of Authenticity? Can they still donate the PC and operating system? A. Microsoft recommends that educational institutions only accept computer donations that are accompanied by proper operating system documentation. If the donor cannot provide this documentation, it is recommended that you decline the donated PC(s). _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
