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Legality of using a burned CD with a legal CD-Key? [closed]

Legality of using a burned CD with a legal CD-Key? [closed]

I have a friend that keeps a collection of burned Windows CD's; 2000, XP, Vista which he uses to repair peoples computers with. Now he justifies this by saying he uses the CD-Key on their OEM sticker that came with their PC. As long as the installation validates the installation should be 100% legal. Is this true? I've always been under the impression you had to use the original CD/DVD that came with the computer.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 299
Total answers/comments: 2
Guest [Entry]

"It's the key that's the important thing, as long as each machine uses it's original key then you're legal. You can use the OEM key if it's available, or the key that came with the disc if they had installed a retail version of Windows. In the latter case you don't need to use the original disc as the burned installer is treated the same as the pressed disc.

NOTE: I'm not saying that you can reuse keys from other installations, as that would clearly be piracy. If you have a valid key then at some point in the past you (or the OEM) had an installation disk."
Guest [Entry]

"Summary: It's most certainly illegal; the serial number alone is not enough.

A burned CD is an illegally made copy of an original CD. Any copying of the data on an original CD is illegal unless allowed by the copyright holder, i.e. Microsoft. An installation of the original CD to a computer is only legal because Microsoft have given their permission in this specific case. I would assume that Microsoft have not gone out of their way to explicitly allow use of illegally made CD copies to install onto a PC.

Therefore, most likely illegal.

(I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.)

(To those downvoting this answer without commenting: You are most likely deluding yourself because you don't want this to be true. This does not, in fact, change the reality of it. Nor does the fact that Microsoft may not be cracking down on this practice - go on, contact them and ask them for blanket permission to do this, and see what they say.)"