Windows XP OEM to sell???

Hi,

is it possible to sell Windows XP OEM, i use W2K and .NET. I have installed and activated it and will deinstall it , but i want to be sure that the buyer can aktivate it also.

Was this preinstalled on a new oem computer?

I have installed and activated it. I bought it separately.

Software isn't generally allowed to be sold on once its purchased at retail level so whether its OEM or otherwise shouldn't make that much of a difference.

I would check with microsoft if you are really concerned about it, but I think that once a piece of software like win xp has been opened and activated for a certian computer, it would be impossible to de-activate it to use on another computer....unless of course you were going to pirate it! Because windows xp takes a "snapshot" of your motherboard,processor...etc. It also tells microsoft that this is a legitamate version by the way your computer is configured by way of software...so no... I don't think you can re-sell an opened and activated version of xp, but I am not positive of this. Ask microsoft on their website in the customer services department....you can either call or email them.(recomended..... email ....call wait periods for microsoft do get to be long)

Thanks for your help, its a bit difficult in germany, because there are court-decisions wich are in contrast to what you sign when you install windows. So in germany you call microsoft and ask if you can buy OEM products from private and they say NO, but german courts decide YES.

Slowly, slowly... Obviously the situation differs from country to country.
In most western societies there is a varying, but fairly large respect for private ownership and -rights. The basic principal is the same, once you have bought something, you own it and can do whatever you want with it, for example sell it. Granted, immaterial goods are be a bit different but still...

Normal XP licenses are, if I recall correctly (?) not tied to the computer in the sence that you couldn't buy another new PC and legally install it there, as long as its off the first one. A OEM license might be tied to a particular computer, but what if you upgrade it. When do you need to buy a new licence, when you switch monitor, floppy drive, mobo, CPU, HD, cables or all of the above ? I'm not talking about the XP activation now, just when could MS in court strip you of your ownership by claiming that your license isn't valid anymore ? And what if you bought XP and all or some parts of the PC it came with ?

Another minefield here is that few people bought anything from MS. You walk into your local friendly PC dealer (seller) and you buy something (you're the buyer). The basic contractual situation in most countries is between you two, and consumer protection laws give you an quite large degree of freedom to be ignorant in many places. Say you show up in court, say the desktop colours where all wrong, the seller refused to take it back in a opened package (as stated) so you sold it to your friend. In many countries it would be a hard time for any big corp to prove that you had to be aware about all the fine print you were surprised to find AFTER you had bought the product. Basically the deal was entered before the fine print, and then the fine print is a separate contract between you and MS, and legaly binding in a varying degree, and secondary to the legislation. This would also in many countries be judged on a case by case basis, a grandma buying her first computer stuff would be likelier to successfully claim that she couldn't be expected to know than someone working as a contract lawyer.

I would be very interested to hear about a court case, anywhere in the "free world" where the court is actually sanctioning a consumer level, end user license or similar which severly restricts your ownership by prohibiting your right to sell the product as used. Even more interesting would be to find a case where the court enforces the producers decision not to let a second legal owner use it (i.e.. MS not activating it). It is likely that there is specific software related legislation in some countries, to this extent - would be interesting to know. Can someone point to such a case ? Anecdotal evidence is of litte relevance. I **guess** the legal route would be to claim that the software is consumed wwhen installed, but if it's still there, and MS would acivate it for the first owner on a new PC... The situation for a second legal owner should not be that different. Product activation, which gives MS the possibility to prove that it has actually been installed is a new thing, with Win 2000 it would be extremely hard to make a case against a second owner (as opposed to user)

Shakti, if the court says YES, and Microsfot NO its pretty obvious that in that specific case the court wins. Contracts in breach with the law are not valid. Can you point to any articles about court cases where MS has refused activation of a used product, not that I doubt that they would try it ? I'd be surprised if they can win in court. Another story is that it can take time and be practically difficult to get the court decision enforced, and that you might have to carry every single case to court if MS refuses to comply.

H.

Here we are, straight out of the XP EULA:



Not quite what I thought but AFAIK OEM copies are generally tagged with "For distribution only with a new PC. Not for resale" so are covered by that section (8 I think).

1. MS can write whatever they want, that does NOT mean it stands in court in every (or any) country in the world, and in all situations. But, granted, your case would weaken if what you bought was clearly marked "not for resale etc", but wether MS can leagly stipulate this *against a second buyer* is doubtful in many countries. It might hold against the original buyer, who is knowingly reselling it, but if you buy it without knowing that...It also says "may not be...used for any purpose other than demonstration, test or evaluation" which would indicate that you are not allowed to really use it at all, if you took that literally. Most bigger PC stores carry loads of OEM stuff, one could argue that thats just an industry standard for cheaper stuff w/o manuals etc.

And fact is, if you got your hands on that software by buying it from anyone else than Microsoft the section you quoted is already violated. It is transferred in breach with the EULA, isn't it ?

2. The term "not for resale" does not necessarely mean that a legal owner cannot sell it. It just (perhaps) means that it should not be (=is marked not to be) in the resale channel, or maybe that the original owner, say a large PC manufacturer, has bought it with a contractual obligation ("agreement") not to sell it further as such and thsi is marked on all copies. That is not necessarely binding (in court) for an individual who has aquired the software in good faith, altough it is likely to be binding for the original purchaser. That MS could refuse to let you use the product on these grounds is in many places highly doubtful. It would be an odd law that would give the manufacturer the right to pick and choose among the owners of their legitimate products on the basis of what they could have found out long after the purchase. If you bought it in good fate, how could they say you should have known what the EULA contains? The goods is not counterfeit either (for which MS is of course not responsible), its perfectly legitimate.

Dunno if its meaningful to speculate on global legal matters that much further but I wouldn't take the word of the EULA so seriously, just because you have to press F8 to accept it. Its bullying and intimidating customers by MS, and I doubt they are really after individual users with these.

From what I've gathered MS has been fairly relaxed with reactivating XP, I doubt they want really to start shutting off PC freaks on the basis of a phone call.

H.

I thought I'd chime in with my experience in transferring of oem XP Home licenses.

At my former job, we would swap out our bench machine with a new computer every few months. This machine was new, and had XP Home (OEM) on it. We wound up selling a client only the motherboard, cpu, and RAM from our bench pc (long story made short) and sucessfully transferred the OEM XP Home license, after a short phone call to a MS rep. Now, this was in the US, so it may or may not apply, but my final opinion is that for the price you sell it for, you'd honestly be better off not selling it. This way, you're pretty much guaranteed that this won't cause any headaches in the future.

The vendor who sold the oem product without a pc was the one in breach. As an oem, they sign the dotted line saying they will not do this.

I believe an end user can sell it, just as if they sold their whole pc that it came on, which is obviously OK.

Thanks to all for your help.
I sold XP, deleted it from my PC, and the new owner activated it without any problem.