Microsoft Sues Comet Over Windows 'Piracy'

The_Safordian

The_Scrivener wrote: »

See message #66 and;
http://
www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5587#instructions

Don’t be confused by the title
‘Windows Home Server Home Computer Restore CD’

This IS the download that you need.

Date Published:
11/23/2009
File Name restorecd.msi
File Size 226.6 MB

And some "people" here have been swearing that Microsoft wont do this, we must be imagining it :rotfl:

debitcardmayhem

The_Safordian wrote: »

I obviously know a damn site more than you and your "friend" who followers you round saying



Perhaps you should get some virtual memory before commenting on something you know nothing about

The_Safordian wrote: »

Yes I said



And they don't. You said,



Which is confirming what I said Mr Gates. Third party apps do not create bootable USB Sticks because they need a full OEM copy of XP & Recovery CDs do not offer the option so I was right.



Don't worry Mr Gates, I know how nasty you "people" can get when proven wrong

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: My first name is Pearly how did you guess, seems you may be ringing my bell sooner than you think unless you know better , which you clearly delude yourself that you do. :A

rmg1

esuhl wrote: »

You use a different machine. It's not like you have much choice.

I s'pose the only other option would be to buy another PC for which drivers are supplied. But most people would find a way to connect to the Internet if the alternative was to buy a new PC.

Just to play devils advocate (;)), what happens if you don't have access to a different machine?

In theory, everyone would make the recovery discs as soon as possible and know how to use them (I know, I know), but it obviously doesn't happen.

I think a better option would (possibly) be that Windows doesn't let you do anything until you've made the recovery discs. Not perfect, I know, but at least it would be a vague step in the right direction.

StumpyPumpy

@The Safordian
You asked if it was wrong and I answered that question informing you that it was wrong. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it less correct.

I assumed that you meant "wrong" as in "does it breach the license agreement for the software?", obviously you meant something different. Perhaps you should quantify your personal definition of the word "wrong" so that people have a better idea of your world view.

Your OEM license is an agreement between you and the OEM, not you and Microsoft. Microsoft have (different) contracts with OEMs to supply them with software to resell onto you as a pre-installed copy on a system. Any purchase, download or other way of acquiring an OEM copy of Microsoft software other than from your OEM is in breach of the licensing agreement. It does not matter if this the wrongly acquired software is bit identical to that your OEM was given. It is still a breach.

The method and medium of installation of the software is determined by the OEM and their agreement with Microsoft. As you say you have a netbook, I would imagine that the correct way to do this would be via a network installation, or disk imaging; however, the license agreement the OEM has might require this to be "back at base" and not something the user is authorised to do at home. A USB DVD player might be another authorised method, but I can't be specific as the details are predicated on both the OEM's agreement and the hardware capabilities. That is why the correct way to proceed is to contact the OEM. Any other way is wrong. The only thing that I can be certain of is that no OEM agreement includes "let your users download a random copy of our software and install that using your OEM keys" as a clause.

BTW, on the off chance you are interested; an OEM builder agreement actually prohibits installation for personal use. To put this in perspective for you: Dell, the largest Windows OEM at the moment, uses Windows in their business. They do not use the OEM license they have but use a Corporate Volume License for their "personal" machines.


SP

liam_h

I may have missed something, but Microsoft does give the ability to create a recovery disk in the backup and restore centre, doesn't it?

esuhl

rmg1 wrote: »

Just to play devils advocate (;)), what happens if you don't have access to a different machine?

In that case you're screwed! Fortunately almost everyone has access to more than one PC -- whether it's at work, a friends house, etc. But I do see your point -- a long time ago (in the dark days when I only had one PC) I've been in that situation myself. It's very frustrating when you're up to 2am and hit a brick wall, knowing you can't do anything more until you can find another PC.

Also, I forgot to mention that often (in the old days, at least!) you'd get a driver disk for your PC/hardware when you bought it, so you wouldn't be in the Catch-22 position of needing network drivers to connect to the Internet so you could download network drivers...

rmg1 wrote: »

In theory, everyone would make the recovery discs as soon as possible and know how to use them (I know, I know), but it obviously doesn't happen.

I think a better option would (possibly) be that Windows doesn't let you do anything until you've made the recovery discs. Not perfect, I know, but at least it would be a vague step in the right direction.

I really don't like it when Windows (or any OS) tells me what to do or makes assumptions, and if it wouldn't let me do anything until I had created some disks that should have been provided by the lazy penny-pinching retailer, I'd be pretty annoyed! Even if that was what I wanted to do! (How dare my PC order me about, doesn't it know who's in charge here?!)

To play devil's advocate... what if you don't have any blank CDs/DVDs, or your PC doesn't have a CD/DVD burner... or the CD/DVD drive is faulty? Would it be right for the OS to refuse you permission to use software/hardware that you own (or are licensed to use)?

Anyway, I've never made recovery disks for any PC I've owned. I'm not even entirely sure what these recovery disks are for! The only time I've ever used one was when a friend deleted a massive chunk of the registry and needed to boot into the System Recovery menu to replace them (as the OS no longer booted successfully). If he had a "proper" (retail) copy of Windows, he could have just booted from the installation DVD -- no recovery disk would be necessary. And in any case, the option to to boot into the mini-OS that provides recovery tools should be listed by default in the Windows boot manager where you can find it when it's needed.

I think that the best option would be to supply clean-installation OS OEM CDs/DVDs which include recovery options with every pre-installed PC -- like they used to do with Windows 9x. That way we wouldn't need users to burn their own disks... and wouldn't need recovery disks at all. There would be no need to have recovery partitions taking up disk space that the user has paid for but cannot utilise, and in the event of drive failure they would be able to install to a new drive using the CD/DVD. Now that would (in my humble opinion) be a step in the right direction.

rmg1

esuhl wrote: »

snipped......
I think that the best option would be to supply clean-installation OS OEM CDs/DVDs which include recovery options with every pre-installed PC -- like they used to do with Windows 9x. That way we wouldn't need users to burn their own disks... and wouldn't need recovery disks at all. There would be no need to have recovery partitions taking up disk space that the user has paid for but cannot utilise, and in the event of drive failure they would be able to install to a new drive using the CD/DVD. Now that would (in my humble opinion) be a step in the right direction.

Now that sounds a bit too much like common-sense for M$ to actually take note of.......and it might actually cost them money, even though you've already paid for the OS.

Mondez

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

Your OEM license is an agreement between you and the OEM, not you and Microsoft. Microsoft have (different) contracts with OEMs to supply them with software to resell onto you as a pre-installed copy on a system. Any purchase, download or other way of acquiring an OEM copy of Microsoft software other than from your OEM is in breach of the licensing agreement. It does not matter if this the wrongly acquired software is bit identical to that your OEM was given. It is still a breach.
SP

I would argue that he isn't in breach of the license since the one he agreed to says nothing about how the copy installed on his machine got there, just that he is licensed to use a particular edition of windows on that particular machine. He has potentially violated copyright on obtaining the installation media however, but even then any Windows Vista/7 media will accept any edition installation key so even that isn't clear cut if microsoft provide keyless trial versions for download (as I know they do for some editions of at least server 2008).

esuhl

rmg1 wrote: »

Now that sounds a bit too much like common-sense for M$ to actually take note of.......and it might actually cost them money, even though you've already paid for the OS.

It shouldn't cost much, and the OEM installation media could be supplied by system builders, not MS. In any case, a retailer that provides a Recovery DVD could just supply an Installation DVD instead, so there would be no obvious extra costs. Even if they didn't previously supply any disks, a single DVD would hardly push up the price by much.

If I as a lone consumer can buy a small number of DVDs for 11p each, then a large company should be able to buy and press them for less than that.

For all the frustration that can be caused by the unavailability of a clean installation medium, 11p on a £500 machine is only about one-fiftieth-of-one-per-cent of the purchase price.

RobTang

The_Safordian wrote: »

Bangs head on wall again, It's a OEM serial/Licence


It's paid for and I have licences to prove it so not really interested

There is more then one type of OEM EULA, each direct-oem has a different EULA and they are not interchangable with each other or the generic system build oem EULA.
I fully admit this is a very picky technicality

The_Safordian wrote: »

Hey if you object to people discussing it no one is forcing you to post on the topic

Where did I object to you discussing it ?

The_Safordian wrote: »

I've already proven there is, you just need to read it.

You have only proven it on the assumption that the recovery media is always a cd.
Just because you believe recovery media ONLY comes on discs doesn't mean the rest of us does not have any alternatives.
Technology has moved on.

esuhl wrote: »

Anyway, I've never made recovery disks for any PC I've owned. I'm not even entirely sure what these recovery disks are for!

Essentuially its way to rebuild your OS to an out of box standard.


While it can vary because each set is produced by different manufacurers, the generally contain an copy of the windows installation files or an image of windows, a selection of driver files and additional software they want to force on you.

The recovery program will run a silent install of windows (or write the image to the hdd and sysprep the machine), when you do the first login windows will ask you its usual questions then it will run the installers for each of the drivers and the software giving you a fully working system.

You are never forced to make the media but they will usually remind you to make it. I can't say for every manufacturer but the few laptops I have they have alway provided a tool to delete the recovery partition and reclaim the space.

On the matter of actually providing clean media, I think it would cause more problems for your average consumer, there is a reason they produce idiot proof builds.
Plus anyone who actually wants a clean build and know what it entails is smart enough to aquire a copy for themselves.