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Is this considered piracy?
- Thread starter Boesky
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^^^
THIS.
Anyway, back to the question. IF you download the same version (Home, Professional, etc), and there is no crack on that version (good luck with that), then it shouldn't be, even though Microsoft will try to say otherwise. Technically, you are just getting the media.
Technically it is piracy as you are participating in unauthorized reproduction of something. But if one owns the license, it shouldn't cause any legal problems as long as it can be produced when needed. It would probably be faster to dig the disc up, though.
Maybe he should. But he IS entitled to a copy, not my fault he's too lazy to shag his a$$ to look for it. He certainly wouldn't get fined/jailed as long as he can show a valid license.
But wouldn't the question be of a valid product key?? He has to put that in for it to be legal! I could give out tons of XP install CDs but not product keys... That is where the question of legality comes in...
Yeah, that is where the question comes from. Basically, if you use your existing key, but use another install media, you are ok. And only install it once, obviously.
I can't get the Microsoft licence page to open right now, but I believe that it explicitly allows you to make a copy of the media. The trick would be getting your product key, which is probably stored along with your CD 
This is one of the many examples of why Piracy has become so popular in the first place. It's more convenient, it's faster and on top of that, not only is it cheaper, but it's completely FREE!
If you're sat at home and you decide you'd like to buy a piece of software for your computer, it's highly unlikely you feel like hopping in the car to drive to the store to buy said software. Why would you even do that, when you can easily hop on a torrent site and download the software faster than you could drive to the store.
IF the software company offered the software online to purchase and download in the first place, I highly doubt that piracy would have ever even taken off. But once people realize they can get something for free, they aren't going to go out of their way to be moral citizens.
If you're sat at home and you decide you'd like to buy a piece of software for your computer, it's highly unlikely you feel like hopping in the car to drive to the store to buy said software. Why would you even do that, when you can easily hop on a torrent site and download the software faster than you could drive to the store.
IF the software company offered the software online to purchase and download in the first place, I highly doubt that piracy would have ever even taken off. But once people realize they can get something for free, they aren't going to go out of their way to be moral citizens.
If you torrent it, you're uploading as well as downloading.
Plus you'd still need to get your original disc for your license key...
Plus you'd still need to get your original disc for your license key...
I can't get the Microsoft licence page to open right now, but I believe that it explicitly allows you to make a copy of the media. The trick would be getting your product key, which is probably stored along with your CD
Not necessarily. Sometimes the license sticker is on the back of the PC, so depending on the chaotic state of his basement, downloading a torrent and applying his legal key might indeed be easier, and as long as he uses his valid key, I don't see anything wrong in that.
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