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Electronics-Recycling Innovator Faces Prison For Extending Computers' Lives
schwit1 shares a report from Los Angeles Times: Prosecutors said 33-year-old [Eric Lundgren, an electronic-waste recycling innovator] ripped off Microsoft by manufacturing 28,000 counterfeit discs with the company's Windows operating system on them. He was convicted of conspiracy and copyright infringement, which brought a 15-month prison sentence and a $50,000 fine. In a rare move though, a federal appeals court has granted an emergency stay of the sentence, giving Lundgren another chance to make his argument that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Lundgren does not deny that he made the discs or that he hoped to sell them. But he says this was no profit-making scheme. By his account, he just wanted to make it easier to extend the usefulness of secondhand computers -- keeping more of them out of the trash.
The case centers on "restore discs," which can be used only on computers that already have the licensed Windows software and can be downloaded free from the computer's manufacturer, in this case Dell. The discs are routinely provided to buyers of new computers to enable them to reinstall their operating systems if the computers' hardware fails or must be wiped clean. But they often are lost by the time used computers find their way to a refurbisher. Lundgren said he thought electronics companies wanted the reuse of computers to be difficult so that people would buy new ones. He thought that producing and selling restore discs to computer refurbishers -- saving them the hassle of downloading the software and burning new discs -- would encourage more secondhand sales. In his view, the new owners were entitled to the software, and this just made it easier. The government, and Microsoft, did not see it that way. Federal prosecutors in Florida obtained a 21-count indictment against Lundgren and his business partner, and Microsoft filed a letter seeking $420,000 in restitution for lost sales. Lundgren claims that the assistant U.S. attorney on the case told him, "Microsoft wants your head on a platter and I'm going to give it to them."
The case centers on "restore discs," which can be used only on computers that already have the licensed Windows software and can be downloaded free from the computer's manufacturer, in this case Dell. The discs are routinely provided to buyers of new computers to enable them to reinstall their operating systems if the computers' hardware fails or must be wiped clean. But they often are lost by the time used computers find their way to a refurbisher. Lundgren said he thought electronics companies wanted the reuse of computers to be difficult so that people would buy new ones. He thought that producing and selling restore discs to computer refurbishers -- saving them the hassle of downloading the software and burning new discs -- would encourage more secondhand sales. In his view, the new owners were entitled to the software, and this just made it easier. The government, and Microsoft, did not see it that way. Federal prosecutors in Florida obtained a 21-count indictment against Lundgren and his business partner, and Microsoft filed a letter seeking $420,000 in restitution for lost sales. Lundgren claims that the assistant U.S. attorney on the case told him, "Microsoft wants your head on a platter and I'm going to give it to them."
"But we've changed", said Microsoft. "We're different. We're not the same bully we used to be. We're a kinder gentler Microsoft. See, we have Linux stuff in Windows now. Lots of nerdy Linux stuff. How could we be evil with Linux stuff, that automatically makes us good, right?"
It's no wonder the PC market as a whole has taken a beating over phones and tablets. It doesn't matter that most laptops still have Windows when most people for their day-to-day interactions want nothing to do with laptops, and desktops are essentially non-existent outside the corporate environment where they survive only because they are easier to physically chain to a desk. It's for this very reason, where Microsoft sues and arranges charges for its customers, where they have been high-handedly trying to extinguish anything like true innovation for decades that causes people to want to move away from the platform entirely.
It's telling how Microsoft's attempts to break out of the PC market have universally failed. It's like people have put Microsoft in its own jail. We have reluctantly accepted they remain a necessary evil for certain things, but no one will let them into any other market or paradigm because, quite frankly, they have repeatedly demonstrated (and still are) they simply cannot be trusted. Just as the internet moves to heal censorship, the computing world naturally moves to contain zMicrosoft. Their short and medium term strategies that were antagonistic to their consumers just can't create long term goodwill.
It's also interesting that Microsoft appears to have decided that they simply cannot innovate, since their strategy continues to be to threaten and extort their user base to continue to pay them.
So let's say you know someone who is recycling used computers with valid OEM licenses and following this exact process and you need the Windows OEM install media to restore windows on the machine. Now, you can go to Dell's web site and download and burn one for free, or you have a friend who has done that already and he gives you a copy of it for you to use.
Should your friend in that situation then go to jail for giving you a copy to use to restore the computer with a valid license with? 'Cause that's what this case is about.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
For those not aware of how this works, it's not an illegal copy. To install Windows on a PC, you need a install disc PLUS a key... the content of those discs can be downloaded online or made with any Windows computer to be used in another. In order for you to install it in a new pc, you need a key that will be validated for that machine alone. The recycled computers had them... Dell desktops comes with a sticked on it with said key. No one getting those DVDs needed a pirated copy, just a install disc, which again, anyone can get without paying a dime.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...
The restitution for lost sales is just bullshit, even if the dvds had pirated content, which they didn't.
It is fucking shameful that a corporation this big would throw a guy that's trying to do some good in jail without understanding how their own OS works.
M$ also has an extremely shallow soul. So deep pockets versus a total immorality and willingness to utterly destroy so old dude doing the right thing in slightly the wrong way, makes M$ a pack of cunts who should be driven out of business, simply fucking awful. Never buying another M$ product again, I am doing my part, are you ;D.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
M$ also has an extremely shallow soul.
Good. The more anal Microsoft is, the more incentive to rescue these refurbs from the dark side, and install Linux or FreeBSD on them. In the long run, we are not helping poor people by giving them computers with "free" closed source OSes.
The OEM license only extends to the original manufacturer and its first consumer or another consumer they directly transfer the license to (both parties have to explicitly agree to the transfer and the original owner is seemingly liable for compliance of its next owner) and the hardware has to stay with the software.
If he didn't have a piece of paper showing he got a license for every single piece of hardware, he has no rights to sell the software. You can't even sell an original OEM install disc without the original hardware.
If you want to sell Windows computers, shell out for a license, it would only double the cost of a second hand computer. For all others, there is Linux or other alternatives.
Newsflash, You big MS shill:
Windows COA sticker on computer proves Windows is licensed for that machine. Already shelled out for. THAT THE MEDIA IS MISSING IS NOT THE PRINCIPLE. MS WAS PAID FOR WINDOWS LICENSES. NO NEED TO PAY AGAIN.
I've been waiting a _long_ time to see some courts with the guts to strike down these absurd "licenses". The original "shrink wrap license" should NEVER have held up. I wish had gone to law school. I'm the person who would revel in convincing the courts to kill this crap once and for all.
Pretty much as useful and no hassles with copyright. Probably also runs a lot better on old hardware.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
M$ also has an extremely shallow soul.
Good. The more anal Microsoft is, the more incentive to rescue these refurbs from the dark side, and install Linux or FreeBSD on them. In the long run, we are not helping poor people by giving them computers with "free" closed source OSes.
This, for the love of FSM. The best "restore" disk is one that restores your freedom.
Too bad Eric Lundgren didn't offer Linux/*BSD in the first place -- he'd have made the world better without breaking the law.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Why the hell does he have to remain jailed pending appeal? He is not a flight risk? The judge and the prosecutor are just being dicks in the interim.
Tells you which side of the bread is being buttered here.
The OEM license only extends to the original manufacturer and its first consumer or another consumer they directly transfer the license to (both parties have to explicitly agree to the transfer and the original owner is seemingly liable for compliance of its next owner) and the hardware has to stay with the software.
This is factually incorrect.
The law says you are wrong, and Microsoft says you are wrong.
A retail license extends to a consumer. An OEM license extends to a computer.
A computer can not grant permission for anything, let alone transferring its license. An OEM license never applies to a human being, so it can't be transferred by one.
Even Microsoft says this:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mssmallbiz/2009/10/27/no-oem-microsoft-windows-licenses-cannot-be-transferred-to-another-pc/
As you can see, the OEM Windows license is âoelockedâ to the original PC it comes with and cannot be transferred to any other PC.
The license remains with the computer. The original owner discarded the computer+license. This shop picked up the computer+license. When they resell it, it will still be the computer+license.
The license MUST remain with the computer, the reseller shop can't legally seperate the two if they wanted.
All of these computers have a valid license
What's more, the Windows Restore disks were downloaded by the reseller shop at the time the computer+license was in their possession!
Once the computer+license was sold, the restore disk went along with the computer+license.
There was simply no copyright infringement at all.
Well, as I understand the man isn't selling anything. It doesn't qualify as "illegal sales".
Re-read the summary at the top of this article - he produced 28,000 copies of Microsoft software on recovery CDs he hoped to sell to other refurbishers "as a convenience".
The software on the discs was not his to sell or give away - windows recovery discs are not shareware.
Ken
Refurbished computers are typically sold to less digitally needy people; people who can barely use Windows as it is.
Those are the people who need one of the desktop Linuxes. They need something that, out of the box, is ready for them to use. These people probably need a good Web browser they don't have to install themselves, and online safety. Windows can't give that to them, but desktop Linux comes this way by default.
Basically, he took old computers from businesses, Dell computers, downloaded and produced Windows Recovery Discs, then took the windows license off those old Dell computers and tried to sell them as Windows copies for below market value.
This was a get rich quick scheme he had, pure and simple. He got caught and now he's doubling-down on the lie he used.