On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 07:24:46PM +0100, Matt wrote:
According to a later Register story they have removed this requirment. Apparently what they really ment to say is that people donating machines should donate any OEM software. (Well except in sensible parts of the world, like Germany, where courts have ruled that a PC is simply a bundle of parts, with any OEM software being part of the bundle.)
Yes, I can give away my computer, but remove and keep my sound card, should I wish. I just say "No sound card".
Maybe I missed the point.
To my mind your soundcard is more an integral part of your computer than the software. Do the soundcard manufacturers say on their sites that if you donate your PC to a school it's illegal for you to give them the PC without the soundcard? Thought not. It's complete garbage and wouldn't be enforced by any court in the land. MS's EULA is also complete garbage and isn't worth the paper it's written on. They should cut to the quick and just provide a disclaimer that their software comes with no warranty whatsoever & is only protected by copyright in law. My understanding is that copyrighted material is for fair use and the person who sells it to you can't then impose conditions on you that will prohibit it's fair use. In fact it applies to anything you buy doesn't it? Which is why I believe I'm not breaking the law by running one licensed copy of NT on 2 different machines, laptop & workstation, because to my mind it constitutes fair use the same way you can copy an audio CD for personal use. I must write to Microsoft and ask them to sue me, might be fun. Goes without saying IANAL. I'd like to hear others opinions on the `fair use' argument I've espoused here. Don't schools copy some sections of printed educational material and isn't that also considered fair use? Where do you draw the line? Why's software considered so different from other data? -- Frank *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Boroughbridge. Tel: 01423 323019 --------- PGP keyID: 0xC0B341A3 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/ What happened last night can happen again.