View Single Post
  #26  
Old January 31st 05, 08:19 AM
Noel Paton
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default



wrote in message
oups.com...
I hesitate to join in this slanging match. However.

You have bought a licence, which has certain conditions attached to

it.
Those conditions are enforceable at law under most jurisdictions.


That depends on the license.



The License terms have been tested in the US and the UK courts - and stand.


If you buy the freehold on a house, you are almost certain to buy it
with covenants attached. These may say, for arguments sake, that you
cannot erect an advertising hoarding on the land. The covenant will
certainly say that as a condition of sale that these restrictions

will
apply to all heirs, successors and other purchasers. If you then

build a
hoarding and one of the heirs or successors of the person or company

who
originally sold the house and land and imposed the covenant cares to

go
to law they will win, unless the covenant can be shown to be grossly
unreasonable.


very bad example. You cannot draw a parallel here, since this is so
completely different than what we are talking about here.


Not at all - Microsoft own the software - you only own a license!


In the same way Microsoft will have imposed certain conditions on

Dell,
over and above those conditions in a retail licence, in granting them

a
licence to sell PC's with Windows installed. In exchange the licence
would have been considerably cheaper than the cost of a retail

licence,
and Dell will have passed some of that saving onto yourself when you
bought the Dell machine. The licence will require Dell to impose the
conditions on the purchaser of the PC. At law these conditions are
enforceable.


This is not about Microsoft imposing restrictions on Dell. What is not
enforceable is Dell imposing the restriction mentioned on the user.


IT IS about Microsoft's terms and conditions - Dell merely act as a Vendor
in law


Whether Microsoft or Dell would actually come after you is another
matter, it would depend upon them finding out and whether you were

worth
suing. So it might be better to keep schtoom as to what you do in

the
privacy of your own home. If I were you and I was in business, then

I
would look over my shoulder, from time to time.


Well, I'm not in business, and you are paranoid.


Neither of which would prevent you being prosecuted, should MS take such a
step.


To expand on the car example. If your old car is totalled, and all you
have left are the tires, you can still use them again. And no
restrictions by Firestone imposed on Ford will give them the ability to
enforce a rule that says you cannot use those tires anymore.

The original Dell was crap, and the OS is all I have left of it. And
since the pc I put it on also belongs to me, I intend to get the most
out of it.


Experiences count for nothing in law - and the CD is legally worthless, and
any install from it legally a no-no.
The ONLY machine that CD was legally allowed to run on was the machine it
came with.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.



--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's