Software ethics question

[KaiTran74]

Hello,

First off, I would like to say thank you for anyone who may be able to answer this question. I realize that my question is kind of odd, but I have been pegged as having a scrupulous conscience before, so please have patience with me. I was wondering if it is sinful if I purchase a laptop that comes with a windows xp operating system cd, and I use that CD to install windows on a different PERSONAL computer that I use. The CD says “for software restallation and repair only.” I will assume that means for my the laptop, but is it sinful if I use that CD to install windows on another personal computer?

I am really unsure of the ethics because on the one had, I bought the computer, which means I own the software. But on the other hand, technically the CD says “For software restallation and repair only.” I guess if I want to get technical, it doesn’t say “ONLY FOR THIS LAPTOP.” But anyway, like I said, scrupulous conscience. And i also don’t wanna spend $400 bucks on software that I already legally bought for another computer! I would appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!

 

[Mighty_Q]

You don’t own the software. You have license to use the software on the laptop.

 

[jkatpc]

I’m not sure it would work, necessarily. From acquaintances that have attempted this, the re-installation disk seemed to be mapped to that particular computer, so it couldn’t be used to upgrade another system.

Sounds like you’re trying to upgrade an older machine. May just be worth the money to buy a new one. For the cost of the operating system, you can probably get a lower level machine. If the other computer is using ME or 98, I’m guessing you’re not using it for real high end applications.

On the theoretical side, if you could upgrade the other machine, I’d treat it like a music CD copy–if the machine would never be used at the same time as the legitimate copy (i.e., the license you have would never be operating simultaneously), that might be OK.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Yes, it is stealing. Also, often upgrading a labtop edition of their software to a stand alone PC is often counter productive anyway.

Also, look into Lunix which I understand is free.

 

[Catholic90]

If you are upgrading an older computer, it probably won’t work. Vista requires a MINIMUM of 1 GB RAM to work efficiently, and most older computers don’t have this much.

Also, as others have pointed out, you own the license, not the software. Not to mention the problems…

 

[erbo]

This is where the virtues of “Free” software come into play. I’m talking about “Free as in Freedom”, not “Free as in free beer”.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

There are several Free software license which guarantees that the user has the freedom to use, distribute, and modify the software for his/her own needs. There are some great operating systems and application software that are distributed under this license.

I would consider using Ubuntu Linux on the computer you are building/repairing. It would be more ethical than breaking the more restrictive Microsoft licence. (As a side note, I personally feel that this software is technically superior in some ways to Windows, but that is another debate ;-).

ubuntulinux.org

Good luck and God bless!
-erbo