Charity for returning Windows Licenses

[mahousaru]

Hiya all

I've brought several laptops for others and myself. All but one came with Windows and none of mine actually has Windows on them.

Now there are several articles that can be easily Googled which explain how to reclaim your money...

Now I've just had a thought about a charity where people who don't want the hassle of jumping hoops to reclaim their pennies; instead they can donate their unused licenses and the charity can then reclaim the money for their cause.

Not only would the charity gain from it, but also we can start getting a better idea of actually how many Windows licenses are true instead of burdenware.

So would this work?

Regards
Mahou Saru

[capnthommo]

Himahousaru.
i think that sounds like a pretty nice idea. i don't know if it would actually succeed, but i'd like to think that it would.
i like to see the positive side and hope that it would work, and next time i buy a laptop i would certainly agree to reclamation of the windows user licence for the benefit of charities.
if it ever got off the ground you would deserve a hearty "Well done" for thinking up the idea.
cheers
nigel

[aysiu]

Aren't there some practical obstacles to this idea?

As far as I know, new Windows computers do not actually come with a transferrable Windows installation. They have either recovery disks or a recovery partition, not an actual Windows installation CD.

[tadcan]

AFAIK a windows licence is attached to the motherboard. Since the copy has already been installed it may already be registered and therefore cannot be transfered.

While some have been able to get a refund, others have said that they were not able to. I think it depends on the company. I have a feeling that the effort required to do this might not be worth the end gain.

[Dr. C]

IANAL There are a host of legal issues with this that depend on:

1) The EULA of the version of Microsoft Windows in question
2) The Copyright law of the country where this is done
3) The enforceability of the EULA in a particular country
4) The tax laws of the country

For OEM versions of Windows the Microsoft EULA does not allow the transfer of the software without the hardware that was sold with the software so on the surface the answer is it cannot be done; however where this can get very interesting is where the certain parts of the Microsoft EULA are not enforceable under the laws of a particular country (3) or the right to separate the software license from the hardware is granted by the copyright law of the country in question (2).

Lets keep in mind this is an international forum.