Microsoft’s
Licensing
Madness
!IHNeHNs
Ed Word
Please send feedback and
chocolate upside-down cake
to [email protected].DECEMBER 2006 MAXIMUMPC
T
he controversy du jour regards a particularly
abhorrent clause that Ed Bott noticed in
Microsoft’s end-user license agreement for Vista
(full story on his blog here: http://tinyurl.com/yx9nxv;
EULA is here: http://tinyurl.com/ydyw2f). Most software
EULAs are documents fi lled with nasty lists of things
that you can’t do with the software you purchased,
but the clause Microsoft snuck in unannounced is
especially evil. It’s titled: “Reassign to another device.”
Here’s the exact text: “The fi rst user of the
software may reassign the license to another device
one time.” That means that if you purchase a copy
of Vista at retail—be it the $200 Home Basic or the
$400 Vista Ultimate package—you have the right
to install that OS on one machine. When you retire
that machine, you can install the OS on a second
PC, but that’s it. Unlike the Windows XP EULA,
which permits you to continue transferring the OS
indefi nitely (as long as you remove it from the old
machine), Vista’s EULA restricts each copy of the
OS to two computers.
Naturally, the new policy will be enforced using
Product Activation. Upgrade too much hardware, too
many times and Microsoft will disable your legally
purchased version of Windows Vista. Frighteningly,
none of the Microsoft representatives I’ve spoken with
can specify what determines the difference between a
hardware upgrade and a new machine; all they’ll sayis that it’s a complicated algorithm.
This makes Vista very, very unattractive for
anyone who builds his or her own rigs. Vista will force
people who frequently build new machines or do
regular upgrades—like you and me—to pay Microsoft
a couple hundred bucks a year for the privilege of
running Vista. I’ve had a few problems with Vista, but
I’m ready to drop WinXP. But it will be a cold day in
hell before I pay multiple times for the same piece of
software for the same PC. That’s highway robbery.
Why is Microsoft doing this? Because it can.
There will be relatively few people affected by this
license change, as the vast majority of Vista builds
will end up in OEM machines purchased by people
who don’t upgrade. Indeed, even if everyone who’s
affected by this clause decides to boycott Vista, it
won’t make a measurable impact on sales.
I’ve never been more confl icted about a product
before. If the EULA remains as-is, I’ll be unable to
recommend Vista to the Maximum PC elite. The hitch
is DirectX 10, which only works with Vista. I just saw
the fi rst batch of games written for DirectX 10, and
they make “next-gen” console titles look like bantha
fodder. Every hardcore gamer will be forced to make a
Hobson’s choice.
This is a dark day.Features
MAXIMUMPC 12 / 06
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