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E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

washingtonpost.com

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Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#71

Post by PeterisP »

ada1981 wrote: post #8
dingaling wrote: post #3

I'm in two minds over this. First, it's ridiculous that someone is being jailed for 15 months for trying to make it easier to keep using older PCs and reducing waste. On the other hand that's the risk one takes when dabbling in the world of proprietary software. Where discouraging people from upgrading is seen as a threat to revenue and is attacked accordingly. Had he printed 34,000 Linux disks we'd never have had th…

Does the license prevent people from downloading and distributing it explicitly? Curious what is going on there. I wonder if one could sell a USB configured to simply connect to the internet and download the software automatically.

If the licence doesn't explicitly permit downloading and redistributing copies, then that's illegal. The default position of copyright law is that it's forbidden with some exceptions (depending on jurisdiction) for personal use and such.

I can download Ubuntu, burn it to CDs and sell or give them to others because GPL explicitly permits me to do this.

However, downloading the comment you just made, filling a CD with copies of it, and selling or giving it to others would violate your copyright to it.

Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#72

Post by larkeith »

dingaling wrote: post #3

I'm in two minds over this. First, it's ridiculous that someone is being jailed for 15 months for trying to make it easier to keep using older PCs and reducing waste. On the other hand that's the risk one takes when dabbling in the world of proprietary software. Where discouraging people from upgrading is seen as a threat to revenue and is attacked accordingly. Had he printed 34,000 Linux disks we'd never have had th…

I'm not sure how this leads to being "in two minds over this" - the fact that this is an expected or accepted result for someone dabbling in the world of proprietary software, to me, shows that there is something fundamentally broken about our modern tech industry.

Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#73

Post by pc86 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #13

“One of his projects was to manufacture thousands of ‘restore disks,’ usually supplied by computer-makers as a way for users to restore Windows to a hard drive if it crashes or must be wiped. The disks can be used only on a computer that already has a license for the Windows operating system, and the license transfers with the computer for its full life span. But computer owners often lose or throw out the disks, and…

Not speaking about this case specifically, but the existence of other more serious and/or violent crimes does not negate the impact of small crimes. You can't just say "yeah well there's a lot of unsolved murders so what about those?" as some sort of indictment against police officers enforcing laws.

Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#74

Post by pc86 »

gowld wrote: post #29
aresant wrote: post #22

it is sad and amusing that at least three comments on this thread point out that the wapo article is substantially incomplete. From the original LaTimes article: "In 2013, federal authorities intercepted shipments of 28,000 restore discs that Lundgren had manufactured in China and sent to his sales partner in Florida. The discs had labels nearly identical to the discs provided by Dell for its computers and had the Wi…

> What if the discs were rooted? They weren't. What if he murdered someone? He didn't. > What if their intent was to charge the other recyclers $10 a pop vs the $25 msft charged for the same thing? So? It's not a crime for Amazon to charge lower shipping than Newegg.

It is a crime to resell a company's IP without their permission, though.

Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#75

Post by larkeith »

emh68 wrote: post #68

Can’t blame this on Microsoft. Legal department probably said “these disks look visually similar to Dell disks, therefore we must press charges or everyone will start stamping out lookalike CDs and they’ll be able to get away with it by pointing to us not pressing charges here”. Blame the legal system, not Microsoft. All companies are under such obligations to not dilute their IP.

Could Microsoft not have pursued a cease-and-desist, rather than penalties of $299 (original prosecution) and jail time, if this had truly been their intent?

Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#77

Post by mbreese »

DoctorOetker wrote: post #55

what makes it legal for an ISP (on behalf of an end-user) to request a microsoft server for the recovery disc download and then send this stream of bits to the end-user, but then illegal for Lundgren (also on behalf of an end-user) to request a microsoft server for the recovery disc download and then send a disc of those bts to the end-user? Is it because Lundgren is no ISP, or is it because the disc is considered a…

Nothing grants the ISP rights to request the data. Anyone can ask Microsoft for the data. However, only Microsoft can decide whether or not to grant the request and actually send the data.

By making physical copies, Lundgren took Microsoft out of that equation. Now it was him and not Microsoft deciding who could get that data. So, unless Microsoft has granted you a license to distribute, then it doesn’t matter how much it costs... it isn’t legal. (Especially if you slap Microsoft and Dell logos on the disks.)

The copyright holder gets to determine how their data is distributed and what strings to put on that agreement. This is good. This is also what gives the GPL teeth...

Re: E-waste recycler loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve prison term

#78

Post by lucio »

Reading the court documents, the conclusion is that the guy is shady and the journalist and the newspaper are borderline lying.

The correct headline is: "E-waste recycler loses appeal on 28,000 counterfeit windows installation disks, must serve prison term"

>The sentencing judge determined that the appropriate infringement value was the value of the infringed discs to small registered refurbishers: $25. The court found credible the government expert’s testimony that he was able to use the infringing discs to install functioning Microsoft software

So there were 28,000 discs with Microsoft and Dell logos which can be used to to install functioning Microsoft software

That's a different picture than the one painted by the article.

>In particular, the court noted that it did not find it reasonable to believe that Lundgren and his codefendant had spent at least around $80,000 to create discs that had no value. Using the $25 infringement amount, Lundgren’s guideline range was 37 to 46 months imprisonment. The court sentenced Lundgren to 15-months imprisonment

https://www.courtlistener.com/pdf/2018/04/11/united_states_v...

Did the journalist read the court papers?

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