Legal Or Not??

[paul.rowling]

Hi,

A mate bought a PC with Windows ME installed. Since buying the machine he has started having problems with the machine crashing, generally causing Kernel32 errors. He took it to a local PC shop and they said "Ah yes, this is caused by Windows ME. It's nautorious for causing these type of errors, we can sort this no problem!!!". The shop formatted the machine and installed Windows 98 SE. He took the machine home and it continued crashing. He rang the shop to say that it wasn't fixed and they basically didn't want to know.
What I'm interested in is if the shop have performed an illegal act because they installed Win 98 SE on his PC but he wasn't supplied or charged for a CD or License. Does his existing ME license mean that he is legal to have WIN 98 installed or not???

Cheers

Paul

[Sunshine]

From what our licensing reseller used to tell me, yes, licenses are backwards compatible. Of course, this is before all the court stuff started, and they changed the licensing rules on us! The rules may have changed. You may want to check with a more reputable company.
Still, that doesn't give that company the rights to do what they did. It started off with ME, and they should have fixed it with the end result of him having ME. Sounds to me like a bit of dirty business going on there.

[Outcoded]

Sorry, definitly not legal. He's licensed to run Me, not 98SE. Take it back, get them to put it right, if they don't - shop 'em.

[KINGofBLEH]

I helped bust a major chain here in Jax that was selling machines with Win 98 preinstalled. I had a coworker who's mother bought a machine from them and they told her they if the PC ever has an OS or software problem during the warranty, just bring it back to the shop and they would fix. That was definitely fishy because I don't know of any tech shop that supports OS or apps. Then it got even more bizarre when she had a problem outside of the warranty period and they told her to bring it in and they would fix free of charge. They did this 4 times for her after the warranty expired.

Turned out the were not a licensed OEM for MS operating systems and they had been installing the same copy of Win 98 on thousands of machines which was registered to them. They had been successfully prosecuted by M$ for this on four other occassions. I reported them to M$ piracy dept and they are now under new management.

Your situation sonds remarkably similar.

[freddy]

[quote]Originally posted by paul.rowling:
<strong>Hi,

A mate bought a PC with Windows ME installed. Since buying the machine he has started having problems with the machine crashing, generally causing Kernel32 errors. He took it to a local PC shop and they said "Ah yes, this is caused by Windows ME. It's nautorious for causing these type of errors, we can sort this no problem!!!". The shop formatted the machine and installed Windows 98 SE. He took the machine home and it continued crashing. He rang the shop to say that it wasn't fixed and they basically didn't want to know.
What I'm interested in is if the shop have performed an illegal act because they installed Win 98 SE on his PC but he wasn't supplied or charged for a CD or License. Does his existing ME license mean that he is legal to have WIN 98 installed or not???

Cheers

Paul</strong><hr></blockquote>


although I agree with what your saying paul and I do not agree with piracy,in any way ,,,,go and see the guy and ask him for the licence , for the "loading" ,,,otherwise (i,m in the UK as Well") ,,just ask him if he will give the disk he used (or "and i,m gonna get a bollockin" or failing that ,,,as he has used a legal licence No. ,,,but can,t find the disk ,,,do you a copy ,,,,
PS: don,t forget to get the user manuel off him !!!!!!!

if the shop has *ucked it up and you are still having probs , then your mate still holds the licence for ME ,,(on his machine) ,,,,square one again !!! ,,,and can LEGALY borrow your copy and re-install

[King Grover]

even if the shop has a licenced version does not mean they can use it on customers PC's unless they sell a license to the customer. Your mate has ME and that is all they can re-load. The same CD that he has.

[paul.rowling]

Thanks for your replies, I think I'll pay the shop a visit myself!!!

Cheers

Paul

[Outcoded]

Hell, don't hang the guy yet, maybe he just ****ed up and couldn't remember which OS was on there in the first place, we all have days like that (I have more than most).

[paul.rowling]

It doesn't matter - he only charged £35 to do the repair and that included the installation of Win98. Surely this should have been more if a license was to be supplied??

[AlienDyne]

[quote]Originally posted by Outcoded:
<strong>Hell, don't hang the guy yet, maybe he just ****ed up and couldn't remember which OS was on there in the first place, we all have days like that (I have more than most).</strong><hr></blockquote>

Agreed, but he should keep a record or just ask.

[Shard92]

Like Sunshine I was also told that if you have a ms license that it is backward compatible. I don't remember where I heard this but that is what I was told. Wether it's true or not I don't know. Like I said I'm not sure who told us this ( I think it was a distributor ) that if the customer wants an older OS you can install it as long as you charge them for the newer license. Has anyone else ( other than sunshine and myself ) heard of this? Does anyone know for SURE if it is true or not?

GLSmith

EDit: by the way we support software during warranty period as well... But only for a reformat and reinstall or very minor fixes... But we have a lot of older customers who are afraid they will mess up there computer so we include it with the warranty so they are more apt to use there computers and even add stuff. It also makes for more return customers. And no we don't sell unlicensed computers!

[Sunshine]

[quote]Originally posted by Outcoded:
<strong>Sorry, definitly not legal. He's licensed to run Me, not 98SE.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I stand corrected. I know you can definately do the backwards thing with Office products, but I was unsure of Windoze. You learn something new every day.

[Outcoded]

[quote]Originally posted by Shard92:
<strong>Like Sunshine I was also told that if you have a ms license that it is backward compatible. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Cool, I'll stick 2k Pro on my XP home machine then.

[Shard92]

[quote]Originally posted by Outcoded:
<strong>

Cool, I'll stick 2k Pro on my XP home machine then.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Um okay, but like I said I'm now in doubt if it's true and the license is backward compatible for running something instead not in addition to....

[Sunshine]

A question I just sent to our MS rep:

"If I have a license for the latest OS, is it backward compatible? Meaning… If I have a license for Windows ME, it’s wiped off the drive, and 98SE is installed, am I licensed?"

I'll let you all know what's said as soon as I get a response.