Waiting for Windows 7 Official Release ...

Zidane24 said:

You lucky people with your technet/MSDN accounts! What I would do for one...or at least an image/key from one

Obtaining a key that does not belong to you, ie being given one that someone else paid for, is just as wrong as using any other method of illegal activation that you dissaprove of.

Microsoft take illegal sharing of Technet keys very seriously and if found out keys will be de-activated, or blacklisted, in just the same way as any leaked OEM SLP key. The Technet subscription will also be cancelled, so it should be just as frowned upon as other methods that we won't discuss here.

I hope your post was not a veiled request :)

In the United States, copyright infringement is not theft.

Dowling v. United States (1985)...

interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud. The Copyright Act even employs a separate term of art to define one who misappropriates a copyright: ... 'an infringer of the copyright.' ...

The infringer invades a statutorily defined province guaranteed to the copyright holder alone. But he does not assume physical control over the copyright; nor does he wholly deprive its owner of its use. While one may colloquially link infringement with some general notion of wrongful appropriation, infringement plainly implicates a more complex set of property interests than does run-of-the-mill theft, conversion, or fraud.

—Dowling v. United States, 473 U.S. 207, pp. 217–218

I O W just get legal!

Make no mistake - intellectual property theft is harmful to someone.

The bootloader exists outside of the OS and is, therefore, not a crack. The referenced, or not referenced, boot loader is a hack. A crack entails modification of something within the OS software. It matters little as the goal remains the same - unauthorized use of copyrighted material.

Bypassing the activation process may or may not be copyright infringment. Also, there is an affirmative defense available under the Fair Use doctrine, but I can find no case law where it was applied, because I cannot find an example of prosecution by MS for a single installation of Windows.

Also, be advised those of you on tall horses - ripping a CD to MP3 (et al) is just as "illegal" as cracking/bypassing Windows 7 activation. So is possession of that MP3 without a license. How many of you have a license for every MP3 in your possession?

Antman said:

Make no mistake - intellectual property theft is harmful to someone.

The bootloader exists outside of the OS and is, therefore, not a crack. The referenced, or not referenced, boot loader is a hack. A crack entails modification of something within the OS software. It matters little as the goal remains the same - unauthorized use of copyrighted material.

Bypassing the activation process may or may not be copyright infringment. Also, there is an affirmative defense available under the Fair Use doctrine, but I can find no case law where it was applied, because I cannot find an example of prosecution by MS for a single installation of Windows.

Also, be advised those of you on tall horses - ripping a CD to MP3 (et al) is just as "illegal" as cracking/bypassing Windows 7 activation. So is possession of that MP3 without a license. How many of you have a license for every MP3 in your possession?

I have a lisence for every MP3 I own, thank you, as well as every piece of software.

wwoods said:

I have a lisence for every MP3 I own, thank you, as well as every piece of software.

It seems you have the tallest horse. :)

Antman said:

It seems you have the tallest horse. :)

You asked. About 5 years ago I went through every piece of software I own, If I did not have a lisence I either bought one, if I had lost it I emailed the company/author to replace the one I lost or I stopped useing it. That includes operating systems on 4 windows systems (2 Ultimate, 1 Home Pro and 1 Home basic - not technet BTW, full retail box), a SUN box, a HPUX and 2 AIX systems.

The Solaris lisence I have is a non-commercial use lisence, same with the HPUX system, as for the AIX systems they are old systems from my work, and I have had the lisence transfered to me.

As for MP3's, every single one I have I have purchased through http:/www.amazon.com/mp3

BTW...that also includes the software/apps on my blackberry

Or maybe everyone else is riding short horses? I see nothing "tall" at all about being a straight forward honest person. Or is that so rare now?

I too own all my music and software, fully paid for.

It's sad that such a thing is considered almost unbelievable or special in anyway