Re: boot camp and xp


Anders Eklöf wrote

Theoretically that may be so, but for an OEM copy I doubt it.

Me too! Coincidentally. there is a thread running on the TidBITS forum
which may be of interest. Attached below is a paste along with a
response from a (US) lawyer.
OEM o/s's usually run machine specific hardware tests as part if the
instal, so it's quite likely you would fall at the first hurdle. It's
not going to find anything it recognises inside your Mac Whatever.
I would suspect it would take a call to Bill's customer support
explaining you wanted to move the o/s permanently to a new machine.
Otherwise you're going to have a problem with updates.

From TidBITS:

Unfortunately, these OEM sales violate Microsoft's licensing agreement.

Some of those selling OEM copies tell you that as long as they sell you
some hardware with it, that makes it legal. They seem to be doing brisk
business selling XP with internal power cables and 1Mb memory chips.
Not
surprisingly, this is also a misreading -- or just an incomplete
reading--
of the OEM license. Yes, the license mentions including OEM Windows
with
hardware -- but it specifically applies to selling parts to system
builders, not to end users, and that those system builders are to
provide
support to the end users. So unless you fall into this category --
which
clearly doesn't apply to user-level Mac installations -- these copies
also
violate the license agreement.

With respect to software licensing in general, you'll hear a lot of
comments to the effect that "such-and-such is illegal, you can go to
jail".
This results from either misunderstanding or misuse (depending on your
point of view) of the word "illegal". Violating a software license does
not
in general violate any criminal law, and thus will not put you in jail,
only in danger of civil action from the licensor (which can be a
serious
danger). The word "illegal" is often used to mean "in violation of the
license", yet many people think of it as meaning "in violation of
criminal
law", hence the confusion. Also, some people simply don't know enough
about
the law to realize that violating a contract won't get you into jail.
We
aren't likely to be able to force people to use just one meaning of the
word, so the best approach is simply to avoid the words "legal" and
"illegal" in this context -- as for the most part Glenn did in his
article.

And all the above applies to the US and probably to most countries
which
follow western European traditions. I can't speak for all the world.
Heck,
I'm not a lawyer even here.

Edward

(In response, from an attorney)

Edward Reid said:

With respect to software licensing in general, you'll hear a lot of
comments to the effect that "such-and-such is illegal, you can go to jail".
This results from either misunderstanding or misuse (depending on your
point of view) of the word "illegal". Violating a software license doesnot
in general violate any criminal law, and thus will not put you in jail,
only in danger of civil action from the licensor (which can be a serious
danger).

It puts you in danger of both. Misappropriating intellectual property
(in this case using software one does not have a license to use) is a
criminal offense:
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/iplaws.htm
in addition to giving rise to a civil action by the developer of the
software.

However, as a practical matter, using pirated software, as opposed to
distributing or selling it, isn't a jailable offense.

The word "illegal" is often used to mean "in violation of the
license", yet many people think of it as meaning "in violation of criminal
law", hence the confusion. Also, some people simply don't know enough about
the law to realize that violating a contract won't get you into jail.

True. Breach of contract isn't a criminal offense usually, unless the
breach involves activities that are also considered criminal in nature.
(Such as violation of the intellectual property laws under the United
States Code.) Indeed (and I've often found this quite frustrating
personally in my practice), in recent years, no matter how egregious
the
violation of a contract is, even to the point of the breach amounting
to
purposely and severely harming the other party to the contract, one can
just about never get punitive damages in a breach of contract case.
Only
actual damages.

We
aren't likely to be able to force people to use just one meaning of the
word, so the best approach is simply to avoid the words "legal" and
"illegal" in this context -- as for the most part Glenn did in his article.

I don't see any problem with using the term "illegal" or "legal" as
long
as there is a known, clearly defined law that one is speaking of. What
I
think is more important is that folks understand that not all laws have
jail time as one of the remedies for violating it.

However, even where you can't be jailed for violation of intellectual
property laws, there are some pretty strong remedies available,
including
confiscating your computer equipment.


_______________________________________________
Randy B. Singer, Attorney at Law

* Moderator of:
The MacAttorney Computer User Group
* Author of:
The Macintosh Software Guide for the Law Office
<http://tinyurl.com/6pyvt>
* Webmaster of:
The Law Office Software List for the Macintosh Computer
<http://www.macattorney.com/>

I think that, all things considered, I stand by my original comment -
'Nope' !

.