Microsoft Laptop Recipient Auctioning Laptop

Salvance writes "While most bloggers who received the controversial Vista powered Acer from Microsoft are keeping them, Laughing Squid has decided to auction off his free laptop from Microsoft and donate all proceeds to the The Electronic Frontier Foundation. (EFF) He saw this as a great opportunity to support a worthy cause, and some other bloggers are following suit. What's funny is that Microsoft is now backpedaling and telling bloggers to send back the laptops. Do they even have a legal right to do so?"

Comments

This article needs to be changed.

[DrRevotron]

Microsoft isn't demanding that the bloggers return the laptops at once, which is what the wording of the article suggests - Microsoft only said that after the review is completed, he has the option of sending it back. Just my $0.02.

Re:This article needs to be changed.

[LunarCrisis]

FTFA (the fourth link)

Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions I'm going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews. The summary is still wrong, but not as wrong as you make out.

Re:This article needs to be changed.

[1u3hr]

The Slashdot editorial comment: "Microsoft is now backpedaling and telling bloggers to send back the laptops. Do they even have a legal right to do so?" is misleading. The letter from MS quoted in TFA is couched as a request. No one claimed they had a "legal right" to demand their return.

I hate MS as much as anyone, but there's no need to make stuff up.

Can they ask for them back? Yes.

[j-beda]

But must they be returned? Probably not. In must places, unsolicited gifts cannot have strings attached. If someone sends you something in the mail, it is yours, even regardless of what is included in it. This is to prevent people from sending out "valuable" product unsolicited and then demanding payment. This means that if someone in the shipping room makes an error and send out actual valuable product to the wrong person, typically that wrong person is under no obligation to return it.

Re:Can they ask for them back? Yes.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

And if the bank accidentally transfers money into your account you can keep it. If they ask for it back, it's entrapment. What's more, if a cop gives you a speeding ticket and he's not wearing his hat, you don't have to pay.

Smart-ass.

Re:Can they ask for them back? Yes.

[asuffield]

There are numerous precedents to the contrary, although not in every jurisdiction. The question of whether non-humans have property rights is one that has been largely ignored by legislation, so the courts have been forced to make it up as they go along. While there are some dissenters, the courts are usually tolerant of the idea (although you may be required to appoint a guardian to manage their estate) - on the basis that if a person wants to provide for an animal's welfare by giving them something, they should be permitted to do so.

Re:Can they ask for them back? Yes.

[Registered Coward v2]

Well given that Microsoft clearly said they could be sent back or given away when they gave them out initally of course they can. Also Microsoft have not asked for the latops back. They asked that they be given away or returned to them when reviewed, very big difference.

Not really, in the US at least. If someone mails you an unsolicited item you are under no obligation to pay for it or return it; no matter what the sender suggests or requests.

Most review items either require a signed agreement - when they want the item returned - or they generally tell you to keep it after you've reviewed it. We'd get random items to review in the mail on occasion as well, and depending on what they were we'd run it or not.

unconcious bias

[purplelocust]

Presumably, Microsoft read the same New York Times Op-Edon bias as everyone else, that basically says that people claim to be uninfluenced by things like this but that they really are fooling themselves and are biased. Microsoft wouldn't have done this laptop giveaway if they didn't think it would work- that is, result in at least slightly better reviews than they would have gotten otherwise.

Auction link

[dtfinch]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =160068144458

Re:Yawn

[SeaFox]

You realize you're posting about events that happened in 2005, right?

INNACURATE

[Anonymous Coward]

The writer for this article is spinning this article. According to the links, MS is asking them to return the laptops *OR* give them away as a gift. By reading the submission alone we are led to believe that MS is merely asking for them back. I'm not condoning their actions or anything but let's call an orange an orange!

my laptop was sent without return instructions

[laughingsquid]

There seems to be quite a bit of misinformation here regarding my "agreement" with Microsoft (there wasn't any) regarding what I can do with the laptop. I've updated my blog post with the following:

As I mentioned in my original post on the laptop, the only communication I received about this was an email from Edelman. The email stated that Microsoft was sending me a "present" with "no strings attached" (those were the exact words used in the email). They did not include any instructions at all regarding what to do with the laptop. Also, I did not receive the same email as the other bloggers, including the follow-up email that was sent by Microsoft to Marshall Kirkpatrick asking him to return or give away the laptop. I have asked Edelman for an explanation regarding this inconstancy, but have not yet received one. So just to be clear, I was never sent any kind of instructions on what to do with the laptop and I did not sign anything, including an NDA.

Re:huh

[cloudmaster]

To clarify a couple of things which are close, but not quite right above...

From http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/cap able.mspx :

"To get an even better Windows Vista experience, including the Windows Aero user experience, ask for a Windows Vista Capable PC that is designated Premium Ready, or choose a PC that meets or exceeds the Premium Ready requirements"

This would suggest that, to get the Aero User Experience(TM), one needs a Premium Ready PC. You might ask "What's a Premium-ready PC?" Well, on the same page:

"A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
1 GB of system memory.
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)2, Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel."

That 1GB RAM is more than the motherboard supports on two of my machines which support 1GHz processors. 512MB will work, but even with the video card (which will run $50 or so in most retail establishments I've seen), that means no Aero for me. Well, my desire to run Linux also means no Aero for me, but that's not the point...

Also worth noting, the "bit locker" drive encryption thing requires one to buy a "TPM" USB 2.0 key or have a system with the "trusted" chip integrated. So, no drive encryption for your machine with only USB 1 support.

The minimum, no-Aero requirement is an 800MHz processor (not 1GHz), 512MB RAM, and the same (basically) video card, which suggests that you'll probably want a lot more than a 1GHz processor if 800 is the bare minimum to run at all...

Re:huh

[Vellmont]

And risk that it would not install and run correctly on most of those thousands of computers? That would be a marketing nightmare. Vista is already how many years late?

Actually Microsoft did exactly this. They gave away 20,000 copies of Vista (and Office as well), to anyone willing to watch some developer videos. I got one, and while I don't have a blog, I do make recommendations to businesses. The point is that Microsoft IS willing to take the chance that Vista doesn't work properly, at least with a large portion of non-bloggers.

Though I do think you're right. They gave away the laptops to the top "influencers" exactly to make sure that Vista ran properly on it.