On 22 Mar 2010, at 22:04, KH wrote:
Am 22.03.2010 23:01, schrieb Stroller:
On 22 Mar 2010, at 19:21, KH wrote:
Am 22.03.2010 20:17, schrieb Mick:
TBH, I wouldn't pay money for it but as many OEM impose a
MSWindows tax on all of us I had no other option if I wanted to
buy this particular laptop.
...
In Germany you are still free to sell the software to a third person
who is insane enough to buy Windows ;-)
I believe the precedent set by that court decision applies throughout
Europe, however I don't think anyone else has followed it up.
There was a guy on uk.adverts.computer (might be uk.adverts.computers,
I'm not sure) who used to make a good business buying end of life
corporate PCs and breaking them, mostly for the licenses. Great bloke,
everyone loved him, always had great deals or could do you one.
One day he got a threatening letter from Microsoft about reselling
these license stickers, which he was doing absolutely legitimately
under EU law, and had to close down his business as a consequence. He
contacted a commercial solicitors and they were happy to take the
case, confident in the outcome precedented by the German decision, but
wanted a deposit of £20,000 ($30,000 US now, but I think more like
$40k at the time).
This was money he simply didn't have, or that he wasn't prepared to
risk. I would imagine the actual costs of pursuing the case could run
much higher, perhaps to in excess of £100,000. It's obvious that
Microsoft would quite happily run you bankrupt with pre-trial requests
to your lawyers, and drag things out with various legal motions,
rather than actually lose the case.
Stroller.
