OEM EULA question

[Brian W]

Just reading through the OEM EULA on my Vista Ultimate (it is labelled as
EN-US even though I'm in the UK, so I won't go into the legalities or
otherwise of it here!) I built my own PC, and have a generic OEM Vista
disc.

At the start, it says:-


INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. The software license is permanently assigned
to the device with which you acquired the software. That device is the
"licensed device." A hardware partition is considered to be a separate
device.


So, the HDD Windows is installed on is the licensed device, according to
this. (A 'hardware partition' is, by definition, a partition on a HDD).
Also, I acquired the software without any hardware (perfectly legal in the
UK/Europe).



Further down, we have:

TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY. You may transfer the software directly to a
third party only with the licensed device. You may not keep any copies of
the software or any earlier version. Before any permitted transfer, the
other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use
of the software. The transfer must include the Certificate of Authenticity
label.


So, if the licensed device is the HDD Windows is installed on, where in the
EULA does it state that changing the motherboard is considered as changing
the computer? If I read this right, I could change every component except
the original HDD and still be complying with the EULA as it's written.


Thoughts on this please

 

[Beck]

Just reading through the OEM EULA on my Vista Ultimate (it is labelled as
EN-US even though I'm in the UK, so I won't go into the legalities or
otherwise of it here!) I built my own PC, and have a generic OEM Vista
disc.

At the start, it says:-


INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. The software license is permanently assigned
to the device with which you acquired the software. That device is the
"licensed device." A hardware partition is considered to be a separate
device.


So, the HDD Windows is installed on is the licensed device, according to
this. (A 'hardware partition' is, by definition, a partition on a HDD).
Also, I acquired the software without any hardware (perfectly legal in the
UK/Europe).



Further down, we have:

TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY. You may transfer the software directly to a
third party only with the licensed device. You may not keep any copies of
the software or any earlier version. Before any permitted transfer, the
other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use
of the software. The transfer must include the Certificate of
Authenticity label.


So, if the licensed device is the HDD Windows is installed on, where in
the EULA does it state that changing the motherboard is considered as
changing the computer? If I read this right, I could change every
component except the original HDD and still be complying with the EULA as
it's written.


Thoughts on this please

It says nothing in my EULA about motherboards.

 

[Dennis Pack]

Brian:
With XP and earlier the motherboard was classified as the main
component. As you pointed out the hard drive is the main component with
Vista. Have a great day.

 

[Beck]

Brian:
With XP and earlier the motherboard was classified as the main
component. As you pointed out the hard drive is the main component with
Vista. Have a great day.

Its interesting they state partition.

Now say for example I install Vista on C: drive.

Then later down the road I decide I need XP back with Vista, so I dual boot,
put XP on C: and Vista on D:, I am moving the partition which Vista is
originally installed. Would that invalidate Vista?

 

[Sly Dog]

Sounds to me like the hard drive is the hardware device VISTA is tied to.
So, changing out the mainboard does not violate the EULA.

That makes sense to me since the hard drive is the device on which the
actual software installation resides.

I'm not sure whether that explains why moving my OS drive from one
controller port to another causes VISTA to de-activate... Has anyone else
experienced this issue?

 

[Dennis Pack]

Beck:
I don't have that answer. It may be tied to the hard drive serial
number. There was a problem with Vista requesting activation after rebooting
because the raid driver was changing the volume serial number every reboot.

 

[Scott]

Just reading through the OEM EULA on my Vista Ultimate (it is labelled as
EN-US even though I'm in the UK, so I won't go into the legalities or
otherwise of it here!) I built my own PC, and have a generic OEM Vista
disc.

At the start, it says:-


INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. The software license is permanently assigned
to the device with which you acquired the software. That device is the
"licensed device." A hardware partition is considered to be a separate
device.

That is completely asinine. I'd love to see how they'd enforce that.
Iv'e got 4 HDDs on my computer and I move shit around all the time.

I'm awaiting an answer to a refund request on an untouched OEM version
of Vista that I bought last week online[1].

[1] http://www.zipzoomfly.com/

If the refund is granted, I'm going with the retail version I bought
at Costco (US) [2] (which, strangely will give me a FULL refund
anytime, on anything I buy there, INCLUDING *opened* software....).

[2] http://www.costco.com/

 

[Michael Cecil]

INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. The software license is permanently assigned
to the device with which you acquired the software. That device is the
"licensed device." A hardware partition is considered to be a separate
device.

I got my OEM copy with a set of harddrive screws. I guess this means I
must transfer those screws to the new computer when I upgrade. Darn!

 

[Alias]

Just reading through the OEM EULA on my Vista Ultimate (it is labelled
as EN-US even though I'm in the UK, so I won't go into the legalities or
otherwise of it here!) I built my own PC, and have a generic OEM Vista
disc.

At the start, it says:-


INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. The software license is permanently
assigned to the device with which you acquired the software. That
device is the "licensed device." A hardware partition is considered to
be a separate device.


So, the HDD Windows is installed on is the licensed device, according to
this. (A 'hardware partition' is, by definition, a partition on a HDD).
Also, I acquired the software without any hardware (perfectly legal in
the UK/Europe).



Further down, we have:

TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY. You may transfer the software directly to a
third party only with the licensed device. You may not keep any copies
of the software or any earlier version. Before any permitted transfer,
the other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer
and use of the software. The transfer must include the Certificate of
Authenticity label.


So, if the licensed device is the HDD Windows is installed on, where in
the EULA does it state that changing the motherboard is considered as
changing the computer? If I read this right, I could change every
component except the original HDD and still be complying with the EULA
as it's written.


Thoughts on this please

So, if the hard drive goes south, you have to buy another license? How
cute. Another reason to wait for Vista because this will cause a lot of
flack and, hopefully, they will come to their senses and change this
ridiculous requirement.

Alias

 

[Alias]

Brian:
With XP and earlier the motherboard was classified as the main
component.

False. Show me a generic XP OEM EULA that mentions the motherboard once
or specifies *any* hardware as the "main component". I have changed
motherboards on one machine running XP Home three times and it has
activated every time over the net, no problems. In fact, the only thing
that machine has that hasn't been updated is the case.

As you pointed out the hard drive is the main component with
Vista. Have a great day.

That won't last. Hard drives go south all the time.

Alias

 

[Dennis Pack]

Alias:
With Windows 98, 2000, XP and XP x64 changing the mother board or
ram triggered activation, usually by telephone. Whether it was specifically
listed in the EULA or not, that's the way it worked. Have a great day.

 

[Alias]

Alias:
With Windows 98, 2000, XP and XP x64 changing the mother board or
ram triggered activation, usually by telephone. Whether it was
specifically listed in the EULA or not, that's the way it worked. Have a
great day.

Um, neither 98 nor 2000 had or have activation. Where did you get that
urban legend from? I have never used phone activation and the only time
activation was triggered without reinstalling XP, was due to a faulty
NIC that I uninstalled and installed several times and it activated on
line four times before it STFU.

Alias

 

[BSchnur]

With Windows 98, 2000, XP and XP x64 changing the mother board or

ram triggered activation, usually by telephone. Whether it was specifically
listed in the EULA or not, that's the way it worked. Have a great day.

Dennis, perhaps with XP and XP64, but I've not seen that with 2000 and
certainly not with Windows 98. Often enough, with 2000, you'd do well
to reinstall (using the same or any other Windows 2000 install CD),
unless the replacement BIOS had a similar chipset (replace one VIA
chipset motherboard with another and you could get away with a restart
in safe mode at least). And you wouldn't even be prompted for a CD Key.


But 2000 and back did not have an activation cycle.

 

[Brian W]

There is a free program that can change the VSN of a partition. Obviously
this won't help if it changes every time you boot, but it's handy when
re-formatting and re-installing

 

[Brian W]

I got my OEM copy with a set of harddrive screws. I guess this means I
must transfer those screws to the new computer when I upgrade. Darn!
--

I guess that as I got my OEM disc without buying hardware (perfectly legal
in this part of the world), I can transfer the licence by itself. The EULA
only states that the software is assigned to the hardware it came with (bit
difficult when there is none!) - it says nothing about it being tied to the
first drive it's installed on.

 

[Beck]

I think serial number would be better, although with their use of
"partition" makes me wonder...