No Windows CD, No Backup

Cerlyn writes: "As was pointed out in a previous editorial, OEMs dealing directly with Microsoft are forbidden to ship a standard Windows CD-ROM disc with a computer. Instead, they must use one locked to the computer sold. I wish to bring up an interesting situation related to this."

"Recently, my school purchased a large number of computers from a certain OEM that likely has to follow these restrictions. These systems came with the obligatory label on one side of the case with the CD-Key, and a particularly interesting bootup screen.

One of the first screens displayed when you first turn on the computer is quite interesting. It is one which asks you to hit any key to confirm your acceptance of the license agreements that came with the computer. This alone would not be unusual (of course, the fact that this now may be legally binding is). But one line stands out to me from all the others: it claims that for the sake of the license agreements, the vendor supplied CD-ROM discs count as a backup copy! Now given I was not doing the installing, and did not see the paper EULAs, the following is pure specualation. But given most license agreements allow only one backup copy, no more can be made.

So my school has one backup disc per computer that can only be used in the lab, with apparently no rights to dupilicate secondary copies. If this was my personal system with only one of these, I would be quite nervous; I have an old office CD gone bad, and as far as I know, I never mistreated it.

On a side note, I sure hope the systems administrators here have copied all those specialized key numbers down and noted which system took which; once the kids get back in the fall, they love scribbling on the computers... and for MS's sake, you better hope no kid finds an ISO online and uses a key stuck to one of those systems to install it."

Comments

Unenforceable?

[coyote-san]

This is definitely one that the lawyers will have to address....

A license is just a bunch of words and, strictly speaking, it could assert that a ham sandwich is your backup copy for the purposes of the law that mandates you have the right to make a backup copy of all media.

That doesn't mean that a court wouldn't throw out that claim immediately - a ham sandwich won't protect you when, not if, you need that backup copy so it implicitly forces you to give up a right without compensation. The problem is that you have to get this license before a judge.

This claim isn't as silly... at least, not at first sight. However, the sole reason that people make backup copies of these discs is to ensure that there's no single point of failure. If the hard disk is corrupted, you have your original media. If your original media is unusable (e.g., because you have to constantly reinstall the OS for some odd reason and the media has become scratched), you have the backup media. If you don't have usable backup media, you *can't* just hop down to the store to buy a new copy - systems evolve so quickly that your only remaining choice is to buy a new computer! (It will probably be cheaper than trying to install a full copy of Windows, once you include staff costs.)

Therefore, I would argue that this clause is one of two things:

1) it says that the backups permitted under the law must be images of that disc, not of the installed system (which is rather silly since that's what you would duplicate anyway), or

2) it's null and void on its face because the purchase included both hardware and software, but that hardware has no value if that lone disc fails when you need it.

You're lucky - you can probably use each OEM disc to "back up" the others. If you only had one disc
I would document the various interpretations... and conclude that the only interpretation which made sense was that your archival copy is of the OEM disc, not the installed system. The alternative asks you to expose yourself to a significant amount of risk with no consideration.

On a somewhat related topic, why did the school buy a bunch of computers but fail to get a site license? That way all systems are loaded from a single disc and use a single key -- keeping track of dozens (or hundreds) of separate discs and keys is not a realistic possibility.