Is OEM licence legal to use?

  • Thread starter Thread starter isme
  • Start date Start date
I

isme

if you buy a Windows XP Professional OEM license alone,
can you install on your home PC & register to Microsoft,
is that consider legal?

Rgds

isme
 
isme said:
if you buy a Windows XP Professional OEM license alone,
can you install on your home PC & register to Microsoft,
is that consider legal?
Click to expand...

Who knows! It would take MS suing you for doing it to find that out, and
that's something isn't prepared to do. If you paid for it, then you've got
the right to use it. Whether MS considers it legal or not is really
immaterial, unless they are prepared to persue it legally.

--
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!"
 
Microsoft does not know the license was purchased by itsself. It will
activate successfully and you can register it if you want. However,
Microsoft will not provide you with any support becuase OEM support must
come directly from the place where you purchased it.

Y.
 
Greetings --

Yes, as long as the purchase includes a qualifying hardware
component.

There are some very important reasons that an OEM license costs so
much less than a retail license. OEM licenses are very limited:

1) OEM versions must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally
a motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC, although Microsoft
has greatly relaxed the hardware criteria for WinXP) and are
_permanently_ bound to the first PC on which they are installed. An
OEM license, once installed, is not legally transferable to another
computer under any circumstances. This is the main reason some people
avoid OEM versions; if the PC dies or is otherwise disposed of (even
stolen), you cannot re-use your OEM license on a new PC. The only
legitimate way to transfer the ownership of an installed OEM license
is to transfer ownership of the entire PC.

2) Microsoft provides no free support for OEM versions. If you
have any problems that require outside assistance, your only recourse
is to contact the manufacturer/builder of the PC or the vendor of the
OEM license. This would include such issues as lost a Product Key or
replacing damaged installation media. (Microsoft does make allowances
for those instances when you can prove that the OEM has gone out of
business.) This doesn't mean that you can't download patches and
service packs from Microsoft -- just no free telephone or email
support for problems with the OS.

3) An OEM CD cannot be used to perform an upgrade of an earlier
OS, as it was designed to be installed _only_ upon an empty hard
drive. It can still be used to perform a repair installation (a.k.a.
an in-place upgrade) of an existing WinXP installation.

4) If the OEM CD was designed by a specific manufacturer, such as
eMachines, Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc., it will most likely only install
on the same brand/model of PC, as an additional anti-piracy feature.
Further, such CDs are often severely customized to contain only the
minimum of device drivers, and a lot of extra nonsense, that the
manufacturer feels necessary for the specific model of PC for which
the CD was designed. (To be honest, such CDs should _not_ be
available on the open market; but, if you're shopping someplace like
eBay, swap meets, or computer fairs, there's often no telling what
you're buying until it's too late.) The "generic" OEM CDs, such as
are manufactured by Microsoft and sold to small systems builders,
don't have this particular problem, though, and are pretty much the
same as their retail counterparts, apart from the licensing, support,
and upgrading restrictions.


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
 
1) OEM versions must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally
a motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC, although Microsoft
has greatly relaxed the hardware criteria for WinXP) and are
_permanently_ bound to the first PC on which they are installed. An
OEM license, once installed, is not legally transferable to another
computer under any circumstances. This is the main reason some people
avoid OEM versions; if the PC dies or is otherwise disposed of (even
stolen), you cannot re-use your OEM license on a new PC. The only
legitimate way to transfer the ownership of an installed OEM license
is to transfer ownership of the entire PC.
Click to expand...

Bruce,

Is this entirely true? Let's say I build computers. I have people
that order them from me and want XP on them upon delivery. Are you
saying that I can't order X number of OEM copies of Windows from MS
for inclusion into my machines? If so, then I am "buying" the OEM
from them WITHOUT a piece of hardware.

Perhaps you are saying that I can't then, by agreement with MS
purchasing agreements, just sell the OEM version to somebody without
providing them a computer as well.

It's hard to tell from your statement.
 
Greetings --

My comments in the section you quoted are aimed primarily at the
end-users, not system builders. You, as a system builder, can
certainly purchase OEM licenses from Microsoft for retail resale,
either installed on a computer or along with another piece of
qualifying hardware, so long as your sales comply with your
contractual obligations to Microsoft.

However, I'm not a systems builder, myself, so I'm not familiar
with the specific terms under which you could obtain the OEM licenses
for installation and resale. Perhaps, someone more experienced in the
matter will shed some light on the topic?


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
 
Back
Top