Author: Tom Nardi / Source: Hackaday
At this point, you’ve almost certainly heard the tale of Eric Lundgren, the electronics recycler who is now looking at spending 15 months in prison because he was duplicating freely available Windows restore discs. Of no use to anyone who doesn’t already have a licensed copy of Windows, these restore discs have little to no monetary value.
In fact, as an individual, you couldn’t buy one at retail if you wanted to. The duplication of these discs would therefore seem to be a victimless crime.
Especially when you hear what Eric wanted to do with these discs. To help extend the functional lifespan of older computers, he intended on providing these discs at low cost to those looking to refurbish Windows computers. After each machine had its operating system reinstalled, the disc would go along with the computer in hopes the new owner would be able to utilize it themselves down the road.
It all sounds innocent enough, even honorable. But a quick glance at Microsoft’s licensing arrangement is all you need to know the whole scheme runs afoul of how the Redmond giant wants their operating system installed and maintained. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but when Eric Lundgren decided to use Microsoft’s product he agreed to play by their rules. Unfortunately for him, he lost.
A Perfectly Logical Defense
In a nutshell, Eric’s claims that he is not guilty of “pirating” Microsoft Windows; as the discs he was duplicating were intended only to restore a previously-licensed copy of the operating system. The line of logic continues that, since the owner of a Windows computer has the right to install Windows on it as many times as he or she would like, the installation media should be freely available to them.
Indeed, Microsoft and most OEMs do offer a free download for restoration media. But downloading the files and burning them to disc or otherwise copying them to a bootable device could easily be beyond the means of many users. So computers which could otherwise be brought back up to operational condition with a fresh install of their OS are tossed in the trash in favor of purchasing a new machine.
Up to this point, Eric’s argument is sound enough. We’ve all picked up a computer or two off the side of the road that just needed a wipe and reinstall to get it kicking again.
Given these basic facts, Eric had the idea to take the freely available restore disc ISOs and have them professionally pressed to CDs. While he was at it he figured he might as well make them look like the real thing, and provided the Chinese company he was working with images of what the legitimate restore discs should look like. Right down to the company logos and copyright notices.
Why not? After all, it’s free.
Free Versus Libre
The English language is a tricky thing: one word can have multiple definitions depending on the context in which it was used. A perfect…
The post The Eric Lundgren Story: When Free isn’t Free appeared first on FeedBox.