Windows 7 House Party hosts pawning their goods on Ebay
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
Comments
This behavior is ridiculous. Whether its in the terms or not, its 100% unethical. Microsoft is giving the software away to a few that are enthusiastic enough to spread the word and promote it. There is supposed to be a mutual understanding between Microsoft and the host. Lets be real, the people selling their party packs are petty criminals.
'Ah, let the guy make a buck, who cares if he's stealing..doesn't matter to me, so what?'
Is that the attitude we want to promote in our society? Is that what you would teach your children? If so, we're all in trouble. It is illegal to sell Microsoft Software, period. You cannot sell MS software with out a liscense. Do people sell it? Yes. Probably, 75% that is sold is bootleg, Caveat Emptor. Your choice, buy from a reputable dealer or get what you pay for...
Not to mention there were thousands of HONEST people who would have liked to play by the rules and actually be honest and have the Launch party who didn't make it because of people like this.
I'm looking forward to my free copy on Wednesday for 'The New Efficiency'. Probably catch a flick, too, since they're having it at a movie theater.
Are you going to the 'Detroit' one in Walled Lake? Let me know, we'll have a mini EPIC. Ok, so maybe more like a micro-EPIC, but regardless.
Sweet troll, bro! I give it a 7/10
What does this even mean? How can Best Buy sell windows? How can Microsoft sell windows? I'm confused.
Wow, Troll?
Okay, but I still feel compelled to rebuke.
Let it be known that I'm no Microsoft shill.
My opinion on Microsoft as it pertains to Windows 7.
Windows XP was a solid OS when it was released, Vista was a poorly conceived and timed upgrade that Microsoft learned some extraordinarily valuable lessons from, and is displaying that by not repeating the same errors with Windows 7. Windows 7 is literally one of the most exciting product launches in consumer electronics history because they have engaged the enthusiast consumers head on with free Beta testing, an open forum to discuss issues, and now the house party program. They said, hey Mr. and Ms. tech enthusiasts, help us make our product better. Whats not to love about that?
Now, Microsoft in a broad sense.
Positive
Windows 7 as stated above.
I love my Zune and the Zune pass, its largely overlooked as a consumer alternative to the Ipod. The Zune HD is an especially compelling piece of hardware.
I'm a PC because I want the freedom to select my own hardware and build my own system, something Apple clearly does not think users need to do.
You know, bing.com aint half bad, I'm still a google man, but bing does offer something in the way of search engine differentiation.
Negative.
The Xbox360 can bite me! Its the biggest quality control failure in consumer electronics history! I just had a sixth console red ring recently. We were a household with two 360's, Each one replaced multiple times, I'm fed up with it to the point that I won't give that division a penny of my cash ever again. Only way I'll ever play a 360 is if I win one in a giveaway, or if Microsoft throws me one as an apology for all my time and energy wasted on that product. Microsoft released a total lemon there, sure, they are fixing them, but they are doing it because they more or less have to.
$50 a year for an advertising laced service like Xbox Live is thievery. The content from the live arcade, the expansion packs and netflix is more than enough to support that service, not to mention all the advertising banners that are on it along with promotional uses to sell more of their own product. Live should be free to all 360 gamers.
As much as I dislike Xbox360, I despise Microsoft Office even more. Hundreds of dollars for a program to be a word processor and spreadsheet? Hey Microsoft, 1995 called, they want their buisness model back. Time for Microsoft to get with the times and charge something reasonable for that product. If your a home user and your not using OpenOffice by now, I don't know what you are waiting for. Heck, if your a buisness, and your not doing something to convert, I don't get you either.
Internet Explorer, has not been my day to day browser for years because frankly, there are better alternatives.
Though, admittedly it must be done... Constant software updates to patch security holes of every kind!!
Software DRM. The Windows genuine advantage program is rarely, but occasionally a pain in my rear. I had a recent mess where I had a friend that had a typical Dell OEM XP box, she needed an OS reinstall, but she did not have the Dell restore media. I tried to do it with a standard XP disk then called to activate using the valid code from the Dell machine, but they went on and on about how they could not do it because I did not use the official Dell installation media. Folks, I've never, ever stolen a piece of software, ever, period. It made me feel like I was some kind of petty crook, for all the support I give them, I deserved better. Bottom line is this, if I wanted to get around it, I could have, instead, I installed Ubuntu for her, and she now is an advocate for Linux.
Lastly, have you ever called Redmond for support? How do I say this politely, hmmmmm, oh to heck with it, There is nothing I would rather do less than calling Microsofts support group in Redmond. They redefine being put on hold.
In conclusion, my saying that selling your Windows 7 party pack on ebay is petty thievery obviously has nothing to do with my relationship with Microsoft. I don't work for them and to my knowledge none of the Icrontic forum regulars do.
I'll say it again, if you get your party pack from Microsoft, turn around and sell it on ebay, you are a thief, simple as that.
Forget legality for a moment and question the raw ethics, the simple question of right and wrong.
Microsoft is giving the software away under the pretense that the people receiving it are going to install it, then hold a party to promote it. If your selling it on ebay, your not doing the right thing.
I for one am very grateful for the free copy I got for attending one of "The New Efficiency" seminars. I'm quite enjoying it, I like it far more than Vista and this one actually feels like it's an improvement over XP unlike Vista. I'm encouraging the people that I know who use Windows to consider upgrading to 7, if not shortly after it's released at least once SP1 comes out. I will probably also purchase another copy for my laptop, marking the first Windows license I've ever bought (not including ones that came bundled with a computer).
Similarly, you can expect about 10% of the general population to engage in criminal activity regardless of circumstances; in the internet age you're going to see a much higher occurrence of behavior that would be deemed unethical in the non-digital world, but as you can see in many of the justifications in this thread alone, these people see nothing wrong about what they're doing or know what they're doing is wrong and do it anyways.
Anyways, I didn't finalize my House Party confirmation because I was already a TN subscriber thinking someone else might make better use of the opportunity for a free Ultimate key. Kinda makes me wish I just took the offer and let the key rot, or give it away to an attendee instead.
Selling this puts it firmly in the gray market. It's the exact same as selling educational or promotional copies. They are NFR. You are not licensed to sell it. It's not really that complicated.
How did you like the afternoon session? The Developers track in the morning was actually quite good. The MultiTouch API is really simple, and totally awesome.
If you were there for the start of the afternoon Win7 presentation, my friend was the one that yelled out '7!' when he asked if anyone knew how many people worked on the project. That's just how cool we are.