In Forum: Windows Vista, 7, 8.x, 10
By User: hounsell
The way I saw it was that torrenting Consumer Preview was no different than if someone who had downloaded it when Microsoft had it up on their site had sent me a copy.
This would be an infringement of the End User Licence Agreement and copyright infringement still.
The simplest way to think of it is that it is no different to a full boxed copy of Windows, with the following exceptions:
[list=]
[*]The price of the software is £0.00/$0.00/â¬0.00
[*]The licence is time limited - it lasts until the timebomb date.
[*]The licence grants Microsoft greater data collection rights.
[/list]
You have no redistribution rights. You have no right to use it beyond the end of the evaluation period. Make no mistake - public betas are for Microsoft's benefit and their's alone. They make sure as such from a legal position.
Ironically, I've been hosting betas for a good eight years now, and hell, plenty of straight up warez too, the only time Microsoft has got in touch with a site hosted on my server regarding betas was when Ludacris mirrored the Windows 7 Public Beta on his site, during the public beta.
By User: hounsell
The way I saw it was that torrenting Consumer Preview was no different than if someone who had downloaded it when Microsoft had it up on their site had sent me a copy.
This would be an infringement of the End User Licence Agreement and copyright infringement still.
The simplest way to think of it is that it is no different to a full boxed copy of Windows, with the following exceptions:
[list=]
[*]The price of the software is £0.00/$0.00/â¬0.00
[*]The licence is time limited - it lasts until the timebomb date.
[*]The licence grants Microsoft greater data collection rights.
[/list]
You have no redistribution rights. You have no right to use it beyond the end of the evaluation period. Make no mistake - public betas are for Microsoft's benefit and their's alone. They make sure as such from a legal position.
Ironically, I've been hosting betas for a good eight years now, and hell, plenty of straight up warez too, the only time Microsoft has got in touch with a site hosted on my server regarding betas was when Ludacris mirrored the Windows 7 Public Beta on his site, during the public beta.