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E-Waste Innovator Will Go To Jail For Making Windows Restore Disks That Only Worked With Valid Licenses (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Washington Post: California man Eric Lundgren, an electronic waste entrepreneur who produced tens of thousands of Windows restore disks intended to extend the lifespan of aging computers, lost a federal appeals court case in Miami after it ruled "he had infringed Microsoft's products to the tune of $700,000," the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Per the Post, the appeals court ruled Lundgren's original sentence of 15 months in prison and a $50,000 fine would stay, despite the software being freely available online and only compatible with valid Windows licenses: "The appeals court upheld a federal district judge's ruling that the disks made by Eric Lundgren to restore Microsoft operating systems had a value of $25 apiece, even though they could be downloaded free and could be used only on computers with a valid Microsoft license. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit initially granted Lundgren an emergency stay of his prison sentence, shortly before he was to surrender, but then affirmed his original 15-month sentence and $50,000 fine without hearing oral argument in a ruling issued April 11." All told, the court valued 28,000 restore disks he produced at $700,000, despite testimony from software expert Glenn Weadock that they were worth essentially zero.
It boggles my mind that such verdict is possible. How come jury nullification didn't happen in this case?
I just don't see how this ruling could stand the way it is described here.
If the software market value is zero, how did the original judge get to $700,000 damages? That calculation or at least argument would have to be shown. Does anyone know what it was?
If you're going to make OS restore disks for old computers, make sure that they use open source software!
If this guy was making Ubuntu or CentOS based restore DVD's, he wouldn't be going to prison right now. Sure, he would have got more tech support calls from people who were confused by the new UI, but that's nothing compared through the hell he's going through.
Oh, and I hope that this story gets national attention. Microsoft deserves a good PR hit for going after this guy.
Well, repairing computers is obviously stealing from manufacturers of new ones and re-using valid Windows licenses is obviously stealing from MS! This person got what he deserved for his unpatriotic, almost treasonous actions. True Americans throw things away when they get old or break! This person was trying to sabotage capitalism and the rich getting richer. We cannot have that. So I am 100% behind this ruling, except that the sentence is wayyyy to lenient. Maybe we can find some terrorism charge in there as well? Maybe something like "inciting people to not buy new computers" or the like? After all, this _is_ threatening the stabiliy of society, just like terrorism.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
There is everything wrong with this ruling. Imprisonment for a non violent offense? Worst case should be a fine or return the money made.
Prison is for dangerous or violent felons, or repeat offenders who cannot reform themselves. Not for somebody who ignorantly violates a license agreement.
This guy never had a license.
He was burning copies of the software and selling discs to people who had licenses. He wasn't authorized to distribute the software, and he was making money doing so. Those are the requirements for criminal copyright infringement.
If you wanna play with other people's code, you have to follow their rules. Sorry, but that's how proprietary software works in the US. You opt into that system when you decide to buy or sell it.
Personally, I think it's stupid to send him to prison when he was honestly trying to offer a service to others. Maybe he's not allowed to offer that service, but he wasn't trying to hurt anyone either. I believe a minimal fine is reasonable---just enough to say "you're not supposed to do that". The prison sentence is especially pointless when a threat of repeat fines would deter him---he's a businessman, after all.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
But there's nothing wrong with this ruling from a legal perspective. Everyone benefits when the law is clear and applied consistently, and in this case it was.
The cost of keeping a person who is no threat to anyone in jail is certainly a loss and no, citizens who bear that cost do not benefit from it. Probation would have been appropriate, the fine was out of balance. Allowing the separation of legal system from a justice system is most definitely part of the problem. Bad law is bad law, even when applied consistently. People like you who stand by bad law and defend bad decisions that defy common sense are part of the problem.
It wasn;'t illegal. Remember, they claim that they're not selling the disk, else they would have to replace damages and loss, but the license to use, hence you "need" an agreement (EULA). Making the disk itself worthless. And, no, if you have a license, you do not need to use the original disks,you just use the license key. Not even the disk s were illegally copied. So complete fail there, moron.