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Quoting Terry Hill <telbonic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
That's good. There's a guy on the Torbay Freecycle who often advertises PCs, funnily enough they seem to come with Windows XP and Office 2003. Either he's loaded and giving away legal copies he's paid for out of his own pocket or he's doing something naughty. I haven't yet e-mailed him to suggest he gives out PCs with at least OpenOffice.org, but I must admit I am tempted. I mean, what he is doing in general (i.e. rebuilding PCs and giving them away to people who could make use of them) is great, but if he's giving away pirated copies with them then he is leaving himself at risk and possibly others who get the PCs with dodgy software on them.Perhaps the PC's he advertises came with the software in the first place. Personally I have two licenses for XP, one for office 2003 and a full license for a Dreamweaver suite that I'm not using, and I gave away two licenses for XP last year. Once I get around to reinstalling my compaq lappy, I'll have another spare license. As far as I understand it, if you've got the label then you've got the license (although correct me if I need it, I've never attempted to keep up with the mechinations at Richmond).
That's what I thought at first, but I gave away some old computer bits recently and he e-mailed me asking if he could have them (as it turns out I'd already let someone else have them). He said that he builds PCs from old bits and then gives them away.
Now the problem is with the Microsoft OEM EULA, the license is tied into the hardware, so building a PC out of bits doesn't really count unless it was already tied to key components such as the motherboard (the licences are tied to things like the motherboard so if it is replaced, it is classed as a new computer). Not to mention with Windows activation, it ties the software into more than one component and you're only allowed to change so many components without having to re-activate.
So too, if you're giving away software which is an OEM version, unless you're giving it away with the complete machine you are in theory breaking the EULA.
The label is attached to the machine, the licence 'dies' with the machine, so if the machine is disposed off, blows up, whatever, then the licence becomes invalid. It can't be transferred.
On the other hand, if it's a FULL retail boxed copy (i.e. something you'd get from the likes of PC World) then you can transfer the licence to someone else (or another machine) as long as everything is transferred over and a copy does not remain.
I know, I don't like it either, but it's what Microsoft specify.It annoys me greatly because when I eventually upgrade the wife's PC, I'll have to buy a new copy of Windows 7 for her (as her current Windows 7 upgrade is now allocated to her OEM copy of Windows XP, so it too becomes pretty much an OEM copy of Windows 7 which can't be transferred). If she'd got a full retail boxed copy of XP and then upgraded that to Windows 7 then as a whole it could be transferred to another PC.
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html