MS hasn't done anything overly evil in a while. Guess they got bored.

[etherealfocus]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...estore-discs-must-serve-15-month-prison-term/

Seriously. Fsck this company. I'm not usually hyperbolic about corporate douchebaggery, but this just makes me want to get everyone I can find onto Linux despite it being a PITA for normal desktop use.

Also, MS's lawyer straight up lied to the judge. And both the judge and the 3-judge panel must be a very special sort of moron not to understand that a license key is the difference between free and not free.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Perhaps the most telling sign of all was the threat made to him that if he got loud in the media that they'd come and pick him up immediately. Its really sad that he repackaged a free product and got nailed for counterfeiting when he wasn't selling any licenses.

 

[Thebobo]

Wow that's pretty harsh, they guy has done a lot of things to help society and then gets kicked in the face. I agree F MS.

 

[cytg111]

Capitalist corporate overlords bringing down the hammer on the little guy.
Not long ago I bought a license for win10pro online for under 1/10th of its official resale value, downloaded the image as described in the article and went on my merry way.

 

[Fenixgoon]

the part that's missing from the article is that the guy was selling the disks with microsoft and dell logos on them.

According to the report in the Los Angeles Times, the discs were intended for sale at cost to other computer refurbishers, for the purpose of bundling the recovery disc with a refurbished computer. The manufactured discs bear the Windows and Dell logos, and are "nearly identical" to the labels from the original Dell recovery discs. According to Lundgren, the restore CDs were only compatible with Dell laptops which were already issued a license and certificate of authenticity from Microsoft.

if he had put his own company's logo on, there probably wouldn't have been an issue, or at least not nearly as much of one. but yeah, if you're selling stuff with MS logos on it, expect them to bring the hammer down.

 

[etherealfocus]

1/10, as in $15? That was legal or some shady ebay deal?

Thing that pisses me off is that I have no objection to capitalism in reasonable form. Get rid of these deranged assholes making it look like legalized vampirism and we'd have a pretty good system on our hands.

I'm not gonna advocate piracy, forum rules and legal risks all that, but I will mention that if you have to use Windows, you can buy cheap, reliable refurbs off eBay for dirt cheap without putting a penny in MS's pocket. I'm running an Optiplex 9020 with i7-4790 right now... got it off eBay with 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive + OEM W10P license for $300. Added upgrades to taste (500GB 850 Evo, eVGA 450W PSU for $25 on Amazon, GeForce 1060 3GB) and it's been a great reliable machine for the last 4 months or so. Got another one at my office with no GPU, running like new for 6 months now. Only way you could tell they're refurbs is a few scratches on the paint.

eBay also has regular deals on Optiplex Micros (bit bigger than a NUC) for $200ish. I'm thinking the family's due for some new computers this Xmas and they're all getting something with reused OEM Windows or whatever Linux is friendliest on the desktop around then.

 

[sdifox]

repost no?

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ore-disks-for-pcs-with-legal-windows.2539928/

 

[etherealfocus]

Fenix - that would be an issue IMHO if he was making any significant profit on them. Would've been reasonable to hit him with a small fine and tell him to cease and desist with the logos (although really the OEM restore disks I've seen have such generic branding that any disc not labeled in Sharpie is gonna look similar), maybe even order him to cough up whatever piddly profit he made. Throwing him in jail for longer than a lot of real criminals AND fining the hell out of him just makes this look like a judicial hatchet job.

 

[etherealfocus]

sdifox - that was before he lost his appeal.

 

[Denly]

the part that's missing from the article is that the guy was selling the disks with microsoft and dell logos on them.



if he had put his own company's logo on, there probably wouldn't have been an issue, or at least not nearly as much of one. but yeah, if you're selling stuff with MS logos on it, expect them to bring the hammer down.

I am guessing this guy cloning Dell recovery disc? My understanding is Dell disc work with all Dell PC and no activation needed. In this case I don't fail MS.

 

[cytg111]

1/10, as in $15? That was legal or some shady ebay deal?

Thing that pisses me off is that I have no objection to capitalism in reasonable form. Get rid of these deranged assholes making it look like legalized vampirism and we'd have a pretty good system on our hands.

I'm not gonna advocate piracy, forum rules and legal risks all that, but I will mention that if you have to use Windows, you can buy cheap, reliable refurbs off eBay for dirt cheap without putting a penny in MS's pocket. I'm running an Optiplex 9020 with i7-4790 right now... got it off eBay with 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive + OEM W10P license for $300. Added upgrades to taste (500GB 850 Evo, eVGA 450W PSU for $25 on Amazon, GeForce 1060 3GB) and it's been a great reliable machine for the last 4 months or so. Got another one at my office with no GPU, running like new for 6 months now. Only way you could tell they're refurbs is a few scratches on the paint.

eBay also has regular deals on Optiplex Micros (bit bigger than a NUC) for $200ish. I'm thinking the family's due for some new computers this Xmas and they're all getting something with reused OEM Windows or whatever Linux is friendliest on the desktop around then.

My listing price is closer to 300$, with media and everything. I got a few serials from reputable site, I researched it first of course, I wanted a clean deal.. But yea its good, just wait for a good price they come around, I suspect some company buys a large quantity.. then maybe goes belly up and someone picks the bundle up for dirt cheap... but really I dont know.. the media was clean from ms and the serial worked and activated.. So it must be good

 

[etherealfocus]

Denly that's only correct inasmuch as the activation on newer machines is embedded in the BIOS rather than on a disc.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I am guessing this guy cloning Dell recovery disc? My understanding is Dell disc work with all Dell PC and no activation needed. In this case I don't fail MS.

On my alienware laptop the utility was built into the bios and the image file resided on the hard drive. I suppose that if a person used specialty software to generate an iso file from it that they could create a fully functioning windows install but it would be tailored to that specific hardware. This is why I only buy retail software that is in the manufacturers packaging to avoid scams.

 

[whm1974]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...estore-discs-must-serve-15-month-prison-term/

Seriously. Fsck this company. I'm not usually hyperbolic about corporate douchebaggery, but this just makes me want to get everyone I can find onto Linux despite it being a PITA for normal desktop use.

Actually Linux works just fine for desktop use as long as you willing to learn new things. I moved my dad over to Linux a long time ago and he took right to it.

 

[Denly]

Denly that's only correct inasmuch as the activation on newer machines is embedded in the BIOS rather than on a disc.

Is case was from a few years back according to the WP articles, so it is still from the disc era.

 

[cytg111]

Actually Linux works just fine for desktop use as long as you willing to learn new things. I moved my dad over to Linux a long time ago and he took right to it.

There is always something broken for me no matter the distro, 4K support/font scaling, old lcd detection (that worked fine prior kernels), mouse acceleration, video playback flickering(when running more than one monitor) .. and using hours upon hours of troubleshooting your issue you will often find a dead end, your setup is just not supported. Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.

 

[pmv]

There is always something broken for me no matter the distro, 4K support/font scaling, old lcd detection (that worked fine prior kernels), mouse acceleration, video playback flickering(when running more than one monitor) .. and using hours upon hours of troubleshooting your issue you will often find a dead end, your setup is just not supported. Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.

Haven't found that. Admittedly I don't use linux much, but elderly relatives have since XP went EOS and have no problems. Of course all they need is basic web access - I'm sure there would be problems for more complicated use-cases. Helps when the scammers phone them claiming to be from Microsoft support, as well!

 

[whm1974]

There is always something broken for me no matter the distro, 4K support/font scaling, old lcd detection (that worked fine prior kernels), mouse acceleration, video playback flickering(when running more than one monitor) .. and using hours upon hours of troubleshooting your issue you will often find a dead end, your setup is just not supported. Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.

I have been using Linux since 2002 and quit using Windows in Aug 2014. I have very issues with using it for my desktop.

 

[Thebobo]

1/10, as in $15? That was legal or some shady ebay deal?

Thing that pisses me off is that I have no objection to capitalism in reasonable form. Get rid of these deranged assholes making it look like legalized vampirism and we'd have a pretty good system on our hands.

I'm not gonna advocate piracy, forum rules and legal risks all that, but I will mention that if you have to use Windows, you can buy cheap, reliable refurbs off eBay for dirt cheap without putting a penny in MS's pocket. I'm running an Optiplex 9020 with i7-4790 right now... got it off eBay with 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive + OEM W10P license for $300. Added upgrades to taste (500GB 850 Evo, eVGA 450W PSU for $25 on Amazon, GeForce 1060 3GB) and it's been a great reliable machine for the last 4 months or so. Got another one at my office with no GPU, running like new for 6 months now. Only way you could tell they're refurbs is a few scratches on the paint.

eBay also has regular deals on Optiplex Micros (bit bigger than a NUC) for $200ish. I'm thinking the family's due for some new computers this Xmas and they're all getting something with reused OEM Windows or whatever Linux is friendliest on the desktop around then.

Ditto but off of craigslist.

 

[whm1974]

I would get refurbs from Newegg myself.