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Microsoft: You Need Permission to Sell Our Software
IEEEmember writes "Microsoft has objected to the sale of bankrupt KMart's Bluelight.com Internet unit to United Online. Microsoft's objection to the sale is based on the non-transferability of software licenses protected by copyright law according to the Reuters story on Yahoo! News. This action by Microsoft should serve as a warning to any corporation that has a significant investment in Microsoft licenses. Dependency on Microsoft licenses may grant Microsoft the ability to veto your business decisions."
I thought that it had been determined that first-sale applied to software. Is that only for home users?
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
This sort of rears it's ugly head every now and then. Honestly, MS is doing what everyone else does. Oracle, for instance, when we spun a company wouldn't let us transfer licenses to the new company; basically, because they want to resell all new licenses. Even though we had a license per person, since that person was in a new address, you needed a new license. Microsoft, unfortunately, doesn't care about the sale, obviously, they just want to be able to renegotiate a new deal with whomever buys the company. Honestly, I think the single greatest thing we could do in the IT industry is create a web-site where everyone puts in the prices they pay for licenses, hardware, etc. then we'd have all the information.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
They're selling the business unit, not the computers themselves alone. They're selling the owner of the license. If i were a slave and had a license for Windows, and I were sold but the PC was still considered in some contrived manner to be mine and came with me, would I have to relicense? no. Because I'm licensed. How should that work any different for a business unit?
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
This is extactly what they want. Go after a company that has no chance of defending themselves in court and set a precedent that it is illegal to transfer software licenses in a business aquisition. Once they have this precedent, they can litigate larger business mergers or aquisitions. Thus requiring them to purchase all new licenses.
Imagine the revenue MS would have recieved if they forced the HP/Compaq merger to purchase all new licenses because they can't be transfered.
MS has 96% market penetration in desktop OS. There is no room to grow that business, unless they can force a legal requirement on businesses to buy more licenses in certain situations. They are obviously trying to "grow" their business.
IANAL so I've always wondered about the following: Let's say I have a company and I build a bunch of for-internal-use-only custom modifications of GPL software. That seems fine by GPL standards.
But...
What if I decide to sell my company? The software I've developed is certainly an integral part of the value of my company. Would GPL require me to publish all of the modified source code if I sell the company?
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
So we have telecoms like Cisco and Nortel selling far too much equipment like routers and switches a few years ago to hundreds of companies that didn't survive the dot bomb. Now they can't move new equipment out into the market because the equipment has been sold off to clearing houses at ridiculously small fractions of their purchase price, then being sold again by these clearing houses to companies still standing for a considerable profit (but still far less expensive than new from Cisco or Nortel).
I'm sure the telcos would just LOVE to include a "cannot resell" clause to equipment purchases, but they can't (can you just imagine some of the other clauses they'd eventually have to put in, "this router cannot be used in the illegal transfer of data, as defined by the DCMA"). Why should MS (or any other software company for that matter) be able to restrict the sale and transfer of licenses, so long as the original owners have no copies remaining? They're no more deserving of assured profit via new product purchases than the telcos are.
Its nice to have a BSA audit, and take them out back, open up a big cardboard box, and show them the boxes[...]
It's nice to get fucked up the ass by some private organization, acting as though it has the authority to execute a search warrant without probable cause, in order to determine if you have "boxes" (and licenses) to all your copies of Microsoft software? That's your idea of fun? When the BSA knocks on my office door, demanding their audit, I'll slam the door in their face. And when they buy a search warrant from some pliant judge, I'll gladly show them Linux installed on hundreds of desktops and servers. Seriously.
Frankly, given the management hassle involved with MS licensing, never mind the potential risks even if you're legit, you'd have to be an idiot to deploy Windows en masse given Microsoft's current licensing crackdown. I know many organizations who are ripping their MS server infrastructure out in preparation for a potential migration to desktop Linux should the situation get worse. MS is walking on thin ice here. JMO!
--Maynard
Do you recall a MS FUD campaign having to do with donating PCs telling recipients not to accept the PCs without the software licenses that go with it? Aren't these licenses ALSO non-transferable or am I missing something?
For MS to warn people against accepting free hardware without the software would seem to be encouraging piracy somehow wouldn't it? After all, MS clearly does not respect license transfers. So in the end, MS has been telling people to require non-transferable licenses and to operate these donated PCs illegally.
Makes ya wonder doesn't it?
Kmart said the sale included one server license and 25 desktop licenses it bought from Microsoft.
All this over 25 licenses? Who cares about 25 licenses? This isn't even worth the "evil lawyers" fees?
There has got to be more to this story. Maybe Microsoft legal just sends out a boilerplate document and objects to any and all Chapter 11 filings. I'd like to know more about this story if anyone has more details.
Stories like this are great to save in my file and drag out for the next Open Source vs. Proprietary Software license debate.