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  • From: Ed Lawson <elawson AT lawson-philpot.com>
  • To: seul-edu AT seul.org
  • Cc: tompoe AT renonevada.net, stephen AT daukas.com, community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org, renotahoe-pm AT pm.org
  • Subject: [Community_studios] Re: [seul-edu] Legal questions [was Re: They changed the site! ( was Re: [OS:N:] Donated PCs)
  • Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 22:47:17 -0500

On Fri, 3 May 2002 10:00:17 -0700
tom poe <tompoe AT renonevada.net> wrote:

> Until they point to a specific law that states
> unequivocally that there is a legal requirement, etc., their statement is
> FALSE.

Perhaps this type of logic get points in debate competition, but I doubt
anywhere else.
The issue is not whether there is a law somewhere "that states
unequivocally". Don't even think laws tend to state anything unequivocally.
That is why people go to Law School. The issue is what is required by the MS
EULA. Read the EULA. I believe it says the software can only be used on the
machine with which it was purchased. If the OS is upgraded, the original
software license melts with the upgrade and you still only have one license
and it must be used with the original machine.

None of which means a person cannot donate a machine without an OS. I will
leave to others to impute motives in making statements which imply the MS
EULA requires the original licensed OS to go with a donated machine. The
answer is yes it must if the machine is donated with the same or an upgrade
version of the same MS OS on the machine when first purchased. MS assumes,
naturally, that the donated computer is an Intel box and has a MS OS on it.
Its statement makes sense when those assumptions are made and assuming people
visiting the MS website are looking for information about Intel boxes with an
MS OS is not irrational.

What is irrational is the willingness of others to think the statments are
ones of general application concerning donated computers and to repeat them
as such.

Ed Lawson
BTW, I am a lawyer and I have some familiarity with the copyright laws and
software licensing




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