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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.'"

3 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. 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.