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."

Comments

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[Solandri]

IMHO the correct resolution here is:

• Lundgren should pay the fine or be jailed. He distributed copyrighted software for profit without the copyright owner's permission.
• Microsoft/Dell should be forced to provide restore disks (physical or downloadable) for these and all systems which shipped with Windows, or refund the owners the cost of Windows. By their own argument, the license is attached to the hardware. So the new owner of the hardware is entitled to a licensed copy. Loss of the original install/restore discs does not invalidate the license. Failure by these companies to provide a copy to exercise the original license constitutes breach of that licensing contract. They must either make good on their original licensing agreement for which they received money, or they must refund that money.

Note that the latter is pretty much how Microsoft now handles Windows 8/10 and Office licensing. The box you buy just has an install key in it. You download the installer. Windows 7 was also treated similarly - you could download the install DVD for free (though not everyone knew this), you just needed a valid install key to use it. They should be required to do the same for all older versions of Windows. Dell and other sellers who make OEM versions of Windows (whose keys don't work with Microsoft's downloadable retail copies) should be required to make the disc images available for download, or be found in breach of the licensing agreement.

(The same goes for movies, music, and ebooks in digital format. I'd also argue that the license for a copyrighted work is agnostic to media format, whether it be digital, optical, magnetic, or paper. If you buy any one, you're entitled to a new copy if the original somehow gets lost or destroyed. Because as the copyright holders keep telling us, you're not buying a copy, you're buying a license.)