Moderator note
This is a hell of a way to begin your legal career. Do not encourage violations of the law, or discuss your plans to do the same.
[Moderator hat off]
You might check a legitimate outfit oriented to students called The Ultimate Steal. I’m not sure of their website URL but I’m sure you can Google it. If you can still be considered a student, they might be able to help you. Based on my student status, I purchased a copy of MS Office 2007 from them for only about $60.
Durr. Everyone knows “minor piracy” isn’t really a crime. Just like jaywalking, public nudity, and 2nd degree murder. Seriously though, I’ve just managed to overcome all the obstacles (see below) without doing anything that would be considered criminal.
UPDATE:
Turns out, even after you check the support page to make sure your model isn’t incompatible, go to the Apple Store 45 minutes away, and buy a copy of Snow Leopard ($29 plus tax), get assured by a “Genius” that it’ll Definitely Work Now, go home & install it, and spend two hours downloading software updates – even after all of that, you STILL can’t install Windows 7 -64bit- on a MacBook (late '07 model). No matter how much memory you have.
My particular hardware model (according to THIS secret support page, which is NOT linked from anywhere else, and was only handed to me on my second trip to the Apple store) happens to be the only non-Pro MacBook that cannot handle the 64-bit version, and would need the 32-bit version.
Solution? Find a friend with a shiny new uninstalled copy of Vista (everybody’s favorite!), and trade him your useless-to-you copy of Windows 7 - 64bit. Pretty good trade all around: he trades a shitty operating system for a pretty good one, and I trade a useless coaster for a shitty operating system.
Thank you all for following along in this little drama. It’s been a blast.
Stupid Question Alert
I know this issue is pretty much settled, but it made me wonder about the legalities of "used’ software.
Could the OP have legally bought a copy of XP from someone who was no longer using theirs? For instance, they bought a new machine with Windows 7 and were scrapping their old XP machine.
Also, nobody mentioned eBAy. A quick search shows a boxed copy of XP home edition for $33.50. What would be wrong with that?
Microsoft has very complex licensing. Its so complex that they employ teams of people who do nothing but figure out their own licensing. Some copies of Windows are transferrable from PC to PC. Many versions of Windows are not transferable. Depends on what you bought. And OEM copy is not transferable. Using an OEM copy without reselling the PC would be in violation of Microsoft’s licensing agreements. EBay depends on what is being sold.
A lot of eBay copies aren’t transferable. I have a few copies of Windows 7 lying around my desk, but the conditions of acquisition are such that they can only be used by me. (Purchased from the Microsoft employee store, given to me by Microsoft reps). Microsoft has started stickering these with “non-transferable” to prevent resale.
I’m a client side Microsoft Licensing Specialist (I work for a big company and its my job to dig through Microsoft’s web site and try and figure it out - one of my jobs - I do other things as well).
Answer, don’t buy from eBay if your concern is a legal copy, its going to be very hard to tell if its legal until you have it in your hands (even then, it might be impossible to tell). Read the licensing agreements on whatever version you have carefully.
[oversimplification]
Legality-wise, most software is sold licensed to the buyer and is non-transferable.
Suppose I wrote a piece of software you like. I tell you I’ll sell it to you, but only on the condition that you don’t resell it. If you don’t agree, that’s fine, but then I’m not going to sell it to you. Since the only way to get my software is to agree to my terms, any “used” software that I find on the market is in violation of that agreement and is not legally obtained–I didn’t agree to let a third person use it.
Thanks for the replies. I knew it was something along those lines, and of course it’s all in the EULA, which almost nobody reads.
What I can’t decide is how I feel about that. Is there a proper analogy? In other words, should that be acceptable to the end user? Should it be any different than selling some other used product, like a car?
For future info, a key for 64-bit will work on 32-bit. And a 32-bit disc image can be downloaded from MS and burned to DVD.
If you rent a car to someone, shouldn’t you be free to place whatever restrictions you want on it before agreeing to the rental? If someone doesn’t like those restrictions, can they force you to rent it to them anyway? There are certainly unconscionable restrictions, but does this rise to that?
You aren’t buying a product, you are licensing its use.
Ah, so the better analogy to licensing would be renting a car. It isn’t anything I find terribly upsetting, I just wondered.