Free Netbook From Microsoft, Then Things Got Weird

paiute writes "Matt Karolian, a Marketing Communications major at Emerson College in Boston 'won' a netbook in a Microsoft re-tweet competition (whatever that is). Then the prize arrived, and it was not exactly the high-quality major award he had expected from Microsoft."

Comments

Licenses.

[baldusi]

Unless he uses Linux, FreeBSD or any other OSS, he's exposing himself to infringing on Microsoft copyright (how can that be penalized more heavily than physical robbery, is beyond me).
And he has just make a very public questioning of the legality of his software ownership.
I do think he should press to get proper licensing. How does he knows that it was properly activated and it's not a crack? WPA itself has lots of false negatives as it is.

Re:Licenses.

[Penguinoflight]

While it's clear that publishing something like this could raise some flags I have to disagree. If he wants to keep the system as-is then documenting the received condition should serve to protect him.

Lack of a COA is not lack of proper licensing. There's nothing that requires Microsoft to provide a COA with a promotional item, and should there be a case brought against the new owner it's still the copyright holder's responsibility to prove the lack of license and the presence of use.