[Gllug] Getting Microsoft off a Dell purchase - anyone done this?

[Christian Smith]

Alain Williams uttered:

> On Fri, Jul 07, 2006 at 05:27:16PM +0100, Jason Clifford wrote:
>> Interesting that on the day we're discussing whether it is legal to sell
>> on a MS license a UK court finds in Microsoft's favour on a case which had
>> that as a central arguement of the defence.
>>
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/07/illegal_ms_software_trader_sued/
>>
>> If the courts are going to follow the usual reasonableness rule I'd expect
>> them to hold that any company supplying licenses under the terms which
>> specify you can reject the license and obtain a refund from the reseller
>> must honour that term.
>
> I suspect that the question will then mutate to the h/ware & s/ware 
> being an indivisible part of sale; ie: if you don't accept the s/ware & 
> choose to return it then you must also return the h/ware.


That's an interesting thought. Apart from being illegal in the US (not 
sure about EU/UK), it makes the software subject to the "Fitness for a 
particular purpose" clause, and faults in the software would mean that the 
hardware vendor would have to compensate/fix any inherent software problem 
that was present when the machine was purchased for up to 6 years after 
purchase. If this required an upgraded copy of Windows, then so be it.

However, the hardware and software are clearly not functionally tied 
together. The hardware can work with other software, and the software is 
artificially tied to this instance of hardware.


Christian

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