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."