New Super awesome sub 900 dollar i7 build

[Impulsivity]

Final-Fan said:
Isn't it one machine ... at a time? So if I rip a license out of an old machine getting trashed anyway, it's fine?

Well, a brief search reveals that I'm wrong, but seriously, Microsoft DOES NOT CARE about individuals doing this. They will jump on any business they find out is doing this I'm sure, but I just don't believe they will ever go after any private person who moves an OEM license to a new PC.

In any case, aside from the bad suggestions he does point out that he knows someone with a couple spare licenses, and I bet you do too.

 

   Reusing OEM licenses (especially system builder OEM licenses) is a grey area.  Using it on 2 computers is black and white illegal (only retail licenses can legally be on 3 computers) but if you uninstall it on computer A and reinstall it on computer B it is not clearly illegal at all.  You have one license for your computer, you are using said license on only one computer, you are technically abiding by the agreement even if not to the letter. 

      The chance of Microsoft A) coming after you and B) having any kind of case is almost nil, they are really infringing on your fair use of the software you purchased legally by claiming that because you changed motherboards you no longer should be able to use the OEM copy you legally purchased. 

   I am not suggesting torrenting it after finding a copy from an OEM vendor that doesn't require validation from say pirates who work out of a bay somewhere, I would NEVER suggest that.

   Personally the furthest into the grey waters I go is reusing my OEM licence for Ultimate more then once, which I feel fine about since I only use it on one machine at a time; how far anyone else wants to go into those waters is a personal decision as far as I'm concerned, and unlike with pirating games which I abhor, I would never judge anyone on how they got a working OS on their system (especially since Microsoft takes as many steps as they can to make other often better OSes unusable with so many games through their direct X, ActiveX and ASP/.net arms).