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Italian Supreme Court Bans the 'Microsoft Tax'

Posted by Soulskill on from the making-hardware-a-bit-cheaper dept.

An anonymous reader writes: In a post at the Free Software Foundation, lawyer Marco Ciurcina reports that the Italian Supreme Court has ruled the practice of forcing users to pay for a Windows license when they buy a new PC is illegal. Manufacturers in Italy are now legally obligated to refund that money if a buyer wants to put GNU/Linux or another free OS on the computer. Ciurcina says, "The focus of the Court's reasoning is that the sale of a PC with software preinstalled is not like the sale of a car with its components (the 4 wheels, the engine, etc.) that therefore are sold jointly. Buying a computer with preinstalled software, the user is required to conclude two different contracts: the first, when he buys the computer; the second, when he turns on the computer for the first time and he is required to accept or not the license terms of the preinstalled software. Therefore, if the user does not accept the software license, he has the right to keep the computer and install free software without having to pay the 'Microsoft tax.'"

11 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. And so therefor it follows and I quote by alphatel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can I get a refund for my Mac OS too?

    --
    When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
    1. Re:And so therefor it follows and I quote by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In principle, maybe. But Apple gives away its software free. It's the hardware itself that's pricey.

    2. Re:And so therefor it follows and I quote by lostmongoose · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm all for free software, but this reasoning sounds insane. When people buy a PC, it says "comes with windows", you know what you're getting, and to require manufacturers to return half of it seems nuts. It's like ordering a cheeseburger, and then demanding a refund for the cheese. Why didn't you just order a hamburger?

      Walk into a store and buy a fully assembled name brand (Dell, HP, etc) PC, complete with warranty and guarantees, without ANY software preinstalled. You can't. Your analogy fails.

    3. Re:And so therefor it follows and I quote by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, given that Apple doesn't charge for OS upgrades anymore, it can be argued that the cost of the OS is $0, when bundled with a Mac. You can get your refund, but I am not sure that $0 is worth the effort.

      The real cost is having to buy a new Mac every few years because the latest upgrade was an upgrade too far. Well, at least it easier to roll back, compared to an iPhone.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    4. Re:And so therefor it follows and I quote by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree in principle, though I think the actual per-unit price paid by the manufacturer is a more reasonable refund than the open market OEM price. Otherwise if I've managed to negotiate a better deal with MS then the excess of a full oem-price refund may well exceed my profit margins. Whether MS should be allowed to negotiate such deals is a separate issue.

      The price situation is also complicated by crapware subsidies - if you remove Windows then presumably you also remove all the crapware installed on it. Now my feeling on preinstalled crapware is that they pays their money and they takes their chances, after all most halfway competent users will remove it immediately anyway. But that subsidy may well exceed the low negotiated price of Windows, in which case an OS-less machine will legitimately be more expensive.

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      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  2. Tax and cost from a PC-vendor point of view by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dell once explained why their Linux PCs weren't cheaper than similar Windows models. The average cost of a single customer service call to Dell was higher than their OEM Windows licence cost, and the Linux PCs had a significant higher number of customer service calls than the Windows-PCs.

  3. 20 years too late by ledow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    20 years too late

  4. Year of the Linux Desktop by InfiniteWisdom · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is it! 2014 will be the year of the Linux desktop!

  5. 50 euro fee for a 20 euro refund by CAPSLOCK2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Under Dutch law you are entitled a refund because you did not get to see the license before purchasing the computer but only after booting it for the fist time. Vendors have found all kinds of work-arounds. One of those work-arounds is that they add an administration-fee to your refund that is higher than the price of Windows. Another work-around is that they require the manufacture to verify that Windows has been entirely removed. Unfortunately they don't have a local office that can do that so you are supposed to ship your computer to Germany. They will check the computer, which takes a few weeks, and only then you get your refund, minus the international shipping and handling costs. Ofcourse they will not use the list-price for the refund but the volume-discount price that the big manufacturers get.
    Only the most principled customers will jump through the hoops to get the refund.

  6. Ban the MS tax on Android instead by haruchai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why should anyone be paying M$ so much as a thin dime let alone $10-$20 in royalties on each Android device sold?

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  7. Re:The elephant can forget. The geek never learns. by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is something distinctly fraudulent about buying a Windows PC and demanding a refund when you could have bought a Linux PC from the start.

    Ok I'll bite. Show me where I can buy a Linux laptop, with a i7-4710, 1TB HDD, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 850M. I can't seem to find one which doesn't say Windows 8.1 included in price in the specs. Note how I pointed to laptops? You ever realise that most of these issues don't seem to arise with PCs as people are able to build their own from the ground up?

    Giving examples of the worst system integration you could find and using that as a reason why I should be forced to pay money to a company who's product I don't want to use is disingenious. Geeks tied up in knots about Linux Audio? There hasn't been a Linux distro I've used in the past 2 years where audio hasn't worked out of the box, then prior to the Pulseaudio debacle it also just worked though not as feature rich as now.

    Now what is fraudulent is selling a product with a separate End User License Agreement, and then not accepting a return when that EULA is not accepted. Really sit down and have a read of the OEM Windows EULA next time you have a week or so free. There is a line in the EULA that says if you do not accept the terms of the EULA in full then you should remove the copy and seek a refund from the distributor. The only fraudulent act is not abiding by the very terms you try to force on your customers.

    By the way I lied about the laptop. I do get a choice of OS. The choice is Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro. Amazing. I feel so empowered.