Woody said:
no , this MS certified reseller , did not . since when have you ever
seen
any do so ?
and since when should I have to purchase a product , get it home ,
install
it then find out there are limitations to how I can use it ?
it says NOWHERE on the outside that I am limited in my use of it
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wanna see ?
The seller doesn't need to know all what they buyer know or what they
don't know. They have to assume that you know what you are buying. If
you go to the tire dealer and say you need Brand X with certain
dimensions then that is the tire they sell regardless that you really
didn't know that particular tire would not fit on your car. It's not up
to them to educate you on the product that YOU chose to purchase from
them. They sell. It's not their job to educate, too.
You have the right to refuse the EULA. Since the EULA is not physically
presented beforehand (by letting you read it on the side of the box or
on a separate sheet included with the product then contract law still
permits you as a party to the contract to refuse the terms of such. For
contracts that are presented only after opening the package, like the
EULA is inside the shrink-wrapped package and not visible in its
entirety through the transparent shrink-wrap, or when only presented as
an installed file or during the installation, you still have the legal
right to refuse the contract and demand remuneration. I brought this up
to our legal department regarding the EULA being inside the sealed
package and invisible to the user before they opened the package, yet
the EULA stated that opening the package was confirmation of acceptance
of the contract. Our product is far higher priced than Microsoft's
consumer-grade software offerings and we didn't want such expensive
returns or consternation by our customers regarding what they were
buying, so packaging was changed so the EULA was visible through the
shrink-wrap and all of it was contained on one side of the paper thus
nothing of it was hidden.
I have returned products to their manufacturers, one of which was
Microsoft, due to my refusal of their terms in their contract (i.e.,
EULA) and received back my monies (less the sales tax since that is not
their responsibility nor does any part of it return to them).
I have never purchased a pre-built computer so I'm not sure what, if
anything, the jobber that builds the box needs to provide the customer
that buys the box regarding disclosure of any software that was
pre-installed. Again, it is not their job to educate their customers
but sell the customer what they asked for that the seller provides. If
you wanted an OEM version that included all the license documentation,
the cardboard wallet, and other materials in the OEM package then you
need to buy a *retail* version of the OEM package and not the jobber's
bulk version that doesn't include all the fluff. If instead you had
actually bought a separate retail copy of the OEM version of Windows,
you should've gotten the paper copy of the EULA along with the sticker
(usually on the shrink-wrap) for the product key. Just saying you got
an OEM version really doesn't say what you got.
You mentioned getting a shrink-wrapped "booklet". Then that should have
included the paper sheet for a hardcopy of the EULA. That's what comes
in every retail OEM version that I get. However, you make it sound like
only the OEM version restricts you to installing it on only 1 computer.
That is a requirement for ALL versions of Windows. The OEM version adds
the restriction that the license for an OEM version of Windows *must*
stay with the computer on which it is first installed; i.e., the OEM
version is permanently tied to the hardware which qualified its
purchase. If you read the EULA carefully, it need not be the entire
computer which is the qualifying hardware. An IDE or SATA cable is
sufficient as qualifying hardware to obtain the OEM version, so just
move THAT hardware to whatever computer on which you want to run THAT
license of Windows. But you can only run the 1 license that you got on
1 computer and that is true of all versions of Windows, OEM or not.
You're just pissed that you cannot legally buy one copy of Windows and
use it on every home computer that you own. You've always had to buy N
licenses for N computers. Being OEM has nothing to do with that. You
could buy a retail FULL (non-OEM) version of Windows and you *still*
only get to install it on one computer. Since you claim the paper copy
of the EULA was not in the booklet containing the OEM materials and
since you disagree with the EULA presented during installation or
readable from the install CD, call Microsoft to arrange a return.
However, since you choose to skip the EULA and install the software
anyway, you agreed to the EULA. You skipping it is no different than
you not reading the loan contract and just blindly signing your name.
The law doesn't care about your choice to remain ignorant and it comes
back to "You signed the contract voluntarily so it is irrelevant that
YOU *chose* not to read it." The retailer that sold you the software
doesn't have to accept the return (and probably won't except for
defective installation media which qualifies it as defective
merchandise) because the EULA is a contract between you and Microsoft,
not between you and the retailer.
"and since when should I have to purchase a product , get it home ,
install it then find out there are limitations to how I can use it ?".
Never bought any software before? It's been that way for ages. By the
way, it is rare that you "then find out" after an install. Any software
that enforces a contract must legally present it to you beforehand
(which may be in hardcopy form or displayed at a point during the
installation where the user can then choose to abort the install without
any changes made to their system). Again, just because YOU elected to
not bother reading the EULA during the installation is not Microsoft's
fault for your laziness. Yeah, it is a pain to read those contracts.
So, have you yet bothered to read the terms in the contract you made
with your credit card company? Do you actually read ALL of the contract
when you signup for automobile or home insurance? Self-elected
ignorance may be bliss but it doesn't absolve you of your legal
obligations. If you have read the EULA beforehand or at the start of
the installation and disagreed with it (so you never installed it) then
you can return it because you, as a party that must agree to the
contract, can legally reject the terms of that contract. You probably
don't even have to prove that the software is no longer on your computer
but you will lose the legal right to use the software if you reject its
terms and return it. Call Microsoft, tell them that you reject the
terms of their EULA, ask for return procedures, and go get something
else, like Linux (and read its user agreements).
