Is it legal to disable WPA?

[CameFromMSNews]

I would like to sell computers with legal Windows XP
version, but customers want the WPA disabled, so that
they are free to change hardware often without having to
reactivate often. I'm wondering if I can accomodate them
legally. If I use one of the licensing programs and buy
multiple licenses designed for a business, then sell
those OS's to my customers, is it legal? Thanks for your
help.

stupendo44

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

No. Not unless the computers actually belong to your "company", which means
that you cannot sell them to your "customers". The mere fact that you would
consider circumventing the agreement indicates that you should not be doing
business...running a business should be an ethical undertaking.

Bobby

 

[Michael Stevens]

I would like to sell computers with legal Windows XP
version, but customers want the WPA disabled, so that
they are free to change hardware often without having to
reactivate often. I'm wondering if I can accomodate them
legally. If I use one of the licensing programs and buy
multiple licenses designed for a business, then sell
those OS's to my customers, is it legal? Thanks for your
help.

stupendo44

NO. All you have to do is contact Microsoft to find the same answer.
With the signature stupendo44, this was probably a troll anyway.
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Jim Macklin]

Doing such would also violate the DMCA, a federal law not
just a EULA civil agreement.


| CameFromMSNews wrote:
| > I would like to sell computers with legal Windows XP
| > version, but customers want the WPA disabled, so that
| > they are free to change hardware often without having to
| > reactivate often. I'm wondering if I can accomodate them
| > legally. If I use one of the licensing programs and buy
| > multiple licenses designed for a business, then sell
| > those OS's to my customers, is it legal? Thanks for your
| > help.
| >
| > stupendo44
|
| NO. All you have to do is contact Microsoft to find the
same answer.
| With the signature stupendo44, this was probably a troll
anyway.
| --
|
| Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
| (e-mail address removed)
| http://michaelstevenstech.com
| For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
| http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
|
|

 

[Dave Neve]

Hi

I find the last sentence in this statement very hard to swallow especially
as the original message was just an enquiry.

If this same statement were to apply to Microsoft with all the anti trust
suits they have lost, then.......

While I appreciate the MVP's and realize that Microsoft are providing me
with this newsgroup via their server, there are also legitimate critisicms
to be made against this company.

I kicked off with Millenium installed at the factory. The recovery CD was
missing many files including 'sound' for my driver, Microsoft refused me
help on their site cos I didn't have their CD and I invalidated my garantee
(1 year + 2 extra years bought ) cos eventually, I just had to install XP
cos Millenium is rubbish (we all know that now).

So there are certainly two sides to this coin.

Cordially

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22SunnyB=A9_=3Csunnyb=40srb=2Enet=]

Damn right.

Based on your premise, the company that made the software shouldn't be in
business either. They have proven themselves to be unethical on numerous
occasions.
Right?

The same ethical guidelines you apply to software users should apply to the
software manufacturer. Otherwise who is the trusted party? Are there any
trusted participants?

When you deal with a thief, you are bound by the morals and ethics of the
thief and no more. Equal standards apply to all or none apply.

"A thief that steals from a thief is pardoned for a thousand years"
Old Arabian Proverb.

No. Not unless the computers actually belong to your "company", which means
that you cannot sell them to your "customers". The mere fact that you would
consider circumventing the agreement indicates that you should not be doing
business...running a business should be an ethical undertaking.

Bobby

§ß©

 

[kurttrail]

No. Not unless the computers actually belong to your "company",
which means that you cannot sell them to your "customers". The mere
fact that you would consider circumventing the agreement indicates
that you should not be doing business...running a business should be
an ethical undertaking.

Why? He is running a business, and wants to accomidate the wishes of
his customers, and before doing so, he is trying to find out if he can.
He seems like the kind of businessman that I would want to do business
with, one that knows the value of trying to keep his customers happy!
MS should take a lesson from him!

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.kurttrail.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Jim Macklin]

The factory that built your computer installed THEIR version
of Windows ME. They remove drivers and such for hardware
that they don't sell, why include AMD drivers if all your
computers are Intel inside. Why include ATI drivers if all
your computers use on-board graphics or NVIDIA cards.

Microsoft licenses the companies, such as Gateway, Dell,
HP/Compaq [OEMs]to use Windows but those companies become
the source for tech support. Microsoft does sell a Windows
CD that is labeled OEM but except for the software that
allows it to do an upgrade, it is the same as a retail full
version CD.


| Hi
|
| I find the last sentence in this statement very hard to
swallow especially
| as the original message was just an enquiry.
|
| If this same statement were to apply to Microsoft with all
the anti trust
| suits they have lost, then.......
|
| While I appreciate the MVP's and realize that Microsoft
are providing me
| with this newsgroup via their server, there are also
legitimate critisicms
| to be made against this company.
|
| I kicked off with Millenium installed at the factory. The
recovery CD was
| missing many files including 'sound' for my driver,
Microsoft refused me
| help on their site cos I didn't have their CD and I
invalidated my garantee
| (1 year + 2 extra years bought ) cos eventually, I just
had to install XP
| cos Millenium is rubbish (we all know that now).
|
| So there are certainly two sides to this coin.
|
| Cordially
| "NoNoBadDog!" <[email protected]> a écrit dans
le message de
| #[email protected]
| > No. Not unless the computers actually belong to your
"company",
| > which means that you cannot sell them to your
"customers". The mere
| > fact that you would consider circumventing the agreement
indicates
| > that you should not be doing business...running a
business should be
| > an ethical undertaking.
| >
| > Bobby
| >
| >
message
| > | >> I would like to sell computers with legal Windows XP
| >> version, but customers want the WPA disabled, so that
| >> they are free to change hardware often without having
to
| >> reactivate often. I'm wondering if I can accomodate
them
| >> legally. If I use one of the licensing programs and buy
| >> multiple licenses designed for a business, then sell
| >> those OS's to my customers, is it legal? Thanks for
your
| >> help.
| >>
| >> stupendo44
|
|

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

No, you cannot resell Volume License installations; the computer
must remain your property for your license to remain valid. However,
what you want to do can be done, and the information is probably
available somewhere on Microsoft's OEM web sites. After all, the
large OEMs (Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc) all do this. All you have to
do is devise a means of locking your OEM installation to the BIOS of
the machine on which you sell it, just like the major OEMs do, and
then your customers won't need to activate.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Stephen Johnson]

Would it be legal if I just told my customers how to disable WPA after
activating. It's not cracking, as it's just a couple registry tweaks, and
they own the software and already activated, so it seems to me it would be
legal. Is it?

stupendo44

 

[Lorne Smith]

Would it be legal if I just told my customers how to disable WPA after
activating. It's not cracking, as it's just a couple registry tweaks, and
they own the software and already activated, so it seems to me it would be
legal. Is it?

stupendo44

Whether it's legal or not is a point yet to be decided in court, but it's
definately against the terms of the EULA to bypass WPA.

Lorne

 

[kurttrail]

How? What part? I can see how maybe not activating at all is against
the EULA, but after you've activated, registry changes should be
fully allowed. Shouldn't they?

Yes. If they do it themselves, however, if you provide them with the
instructions, then you may be held in violation of the DMCA.

http://www.business-standard.com/ice/story.asp?Menu=119&story=21667

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

The EULA expressly prohibits reverse engineering of any kind, and
also specifies mandatory activation. Hence, disabling activation
violated the EULA.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Jim Macklin]

Hey, you and I agree on the DMCA part.


"kurttrail" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
| Stephen Johnson wrote:
|
| > How? What part? I can see how maybe not activating at
all is against
| > the EULA, but after you've activated, registry changes
should be
| > fully allowed. Shouldn't they?
|
| Yes. If they do it themselves, however, if you provide
them with the
| instructions, then you may be held in violation of the
DMCA.
|
|
http://www.business-standard.com/ice/story.asp?Menu=119&story=21667
|
| --
| Peace!
| Kurt
| Self-anointed Moderator
| microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
| http://microscum.com
| "Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an
Oxymoron!
| "Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
|
|

 

[Jim Macklin]

I don't like the DMCA either... It is certainly too broad
and it is stretched even further by the agencies and courts.


"kurttrail" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
| Jim Macklin wrote:
|
| > Hey, you and I agree on the DMCA part.
|
| I agree that that's how the DMCA is being applied by the
courts at
| present. Any one in business should think very carefully
before
| crossing over the line.
|
| And all of my copyright opinions are in keeping with how
the law is
| applied at present, so it should not be a shock to anyone
that I present
| how the DMCA is applied today, though I find the DMCA
totally repugnant,
| and it should be expunged from our legal code ASAP,
banished to an
| obscure sentence or 2 in a History book that no one will
ever read.
|
| --
| Peace!
| Kurt
| Self-anointed Moderator
| microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
| http://microscum.com
| "Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an
Oxymoron!
| "Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
|
|

 

[kurttrail]

I don't like the DMCA either... It is certainly too broad
and it is stretched even further by the agencies and courts.

Then I guess we really do agree on something! Strange things do happen
all the time.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Jim Macklin]

Our real area of disagreement is that I don't blame Bill
gates and Microsoft for all the evil in the world.

I blame Wilson and FDR for most of the problems, along with
the British Foreign Office.


"kurttrail" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
| Jim Macklin wrote:
|
| > I don't like the DMCA either... It is certainly too
broad
| > and it is stretched even further by the agencies and
courts.
|
| Then I guess we really do agree on something! Strange
things do happen
| all the time.
|
| --
| Peace!
| Kurt
| Self-anointed Moderator
| microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
| http://microscum.com
| "Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an
Oxymoron!
| "Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"
|
|

 

[Stephen Johnson]

for one thing, registry changes aren't reverse engineering, and microsoft
itself tells people how to change the registry on their support website. And
furthermore, I said after activation disable the WPA. So you would only have
to activate once, and not every time you changed some hardware.

stupendo44

 

[Alex Nichol]

So what's the point? WPA doesn't require activation "... every
time you change some hardware..." Sounds like someone's making a big
fuss over nothing.

It is not even a true assumption. Unless you reformat and reinstall, XP
will not require a new activation until you have made changes in a lot
of hardware categories - not 'every time you change some hardware'. And
on a simple reformat, that new activation takes about 30 seconds on the
net - big deal. See www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm and the MS papers
linked from it

 

[kurttrail]

It is not even a true assumption. Unless you reformat and reinstall,
XP will not require a new activation until you have made changes in a
lot of hardware categories - not 'every time you change some
hardware'. And on a simple reformat, that new activation takes about
30 seconds on the net - big deal. See www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm
and the MS papers linked from it

"not every time you changed some hardware"

The guy didn't say every time one piece of hardware, now did he? Not
even you and Bruce's assumption about what the guy was saying was true!

Stop ganging up on people over PA! Only you people that are getting
free stuff from MS and those looking for free stuff from MS wants
anything like PA in anything they buy. The rest of us don't want PA
even if MS gave us the effin' OS for free. It's time you guys grew up
and realized the truth! PA is an Anti-Consumer technology, not an
Anti-Piracy technology, and you will never get us to like PA no matter
how innocuously all you MicroVolunteers try to paint it.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"