Selling a comp w/ Windows installed but w/o COA – legal?

[pianowizard]

Many people sell computers on eBay with Windows installed, but these computers either don’t have an COA sticker or have one for an older version of Windows. For example, the X22 that I recently purchased has a COA sticker for Win2000 but the seller sold it with WinXP installed. Is that legal? If not, how come eBay allows such sales? (BTW, I am now selling this X22 and to be perfectly legal, I downgraded the OS back to Win2000 using the product key on the COA sticker).

Suppose the answer to the above question is “It’s illegal”. What if the version that’s installed is a really old one, like Win95 or Win98? Microsoft stopped selling them so long ago, so would they still mind people installing them illegally?

[sechs]

No.

The Windows license requires that the certificate of authenticity, along with media, be transfered with the copy of Windows.

Piracy does not become legal just because the software is old. When you pirate software, you take income away from the creator.

[pianowizard]

Originally Posted by sechs

Piracy does not become legal just because the software is old. When you pirate software, you take income away from the creator.

Thanks for confirming what I believed. It's ironic that sound recording copyrights expire after only 50 years, whereas software that's useful for only several years is protected until the end of time.

[sechs]

I believe that it's only fifteen to twenty years, but, the point being, it should be well past its commercial viability.

[pianowizard]

That's great! Next time I sell a computer that doesn't have a COA sticker on it, I can legally install Windows 3.0 on it! Just kidding.