Re: [seul-edu] Legal questions [was Re: They changed the site! ( was Re: [OS:N:] Donated PCs)

[Robert Hawkins <rbh@okihawk.org>]

Hi,

I mostly ROM this list.  Stepping way out of my league here but....
here it goes....

2002 5月 4 土曜日 12:47?Ed Lawson  Wrote：
> On Fri, 3 May 2002 10:00:17 -0700
>
> What is irrational is the willingness of others to think the statments are
> ones of general application concerning donated computers and to repeat them
> as such.
Isn't in reality this the real issue.  Microsoft knows the "willingness of 
others", and made statements/claims that specifically confused the issue?
Regardless of the legality, Microsoft is leveraging its marketing power
and market share to insure that people be irrational and repeat as if
it applies to all donated computers?

On the legal side, per the site "It is a legal requirement that pre-installed 
operating systems remain with a machine for the **life of the machine**. If a 
company or individual donates a machine to your school, it must be donated 
with the operating system that was installed on the PC."  (My emphasis)

Not being a lawyer like yourself, I'm out of my waters, but to me the above
statement talks about the machine, not the OS.  Does this mean that
the Compaq PC, with pre-installed windows, I gave to my daughter and
switched to Linux(at her request), and then threw out all the Windows 
material(manuals, cd, etc) in a house move, that I can no longer donate it to 
a NPO or school because it doesn't have the OS with it? That's how I
read it. I am fairly certain that is how a lot of people will read it, and act
accordingly(The Register or somewhere has already pointed out that
organizations and schools are handing out flyers that use the wording
on Microsoft's site).

If, in fact, I CAN donate my daughter's PC without the OS, then it goes back
to your comment on the irrationality of people to spread that information.
And if I can donate my daughter's PC, what are the legal ramifications of
MS in specifically providing mis-information(per your comments of context, not 
irrational on the assumptions you assert,  but definitely misleading in the
general context of "donated pcs").  

>
> Ed Lawson
> BTW, I am a lawyer and I have some familiarity with the copyright laws and
> software licensing

-- 
Robert B. Hawkins		ロバート・ホーキンズ
http://www.okihawk.org	http://okiit.okihawk.org
http://www.okiwell.org	rbh@okihawk.org
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