Refurbed PC's - Micro$oft Double Dipping?

[gkarris]

I'm going to look for the link to some news article a ways back, it disappeared rather quickly.

I was at Microcenter that sells refurbished PC's (sometimes, I give advice where to get the best deal for PC's).

I noticed that the refurbished PC's had TWO MS COA's on it. One for the actual computer (say, HP, IBM, or Dell), and ANOTHER ONE that had "Refurbished COA" on it with a totally different license number, but for the same product.

I read somewhere's that MS was going to start charging refurbished and recycling dealers a re-license fee for MS Windows since the EOM license is only for the end user, not for resale.

So let me get this straight, you buy a computer with an OEM license. Yes, it's for that computer only. But then you want to resell the computer, the license is no good for it? You have to get a resale license for it (or a brand new one) from MS?

It seems to me, someone paid MS for that extra license, and YOU KNOW it's going to show up in the final price of the computer. I have an uneasy feeling that I'm paying twice for the OS on there...

Thoughts?

I'll try to find the old news link.

 

[Queso]

Personally I would outright refuse to pay it and tell them the machine was for putting Linux on, which actually would be the truth. Microsoft are becoming desperate to maintain their income levels, hoping that nobody notices that Windows revenue is beginning to drop big time.

 

[gkarris]

I found this online:

http://www.techsoup.org/mar/download/Refurbished_PC_Licensing_Guide.pdf

Q: I have a PC with a Windows COA but there is no recovery media or image. Can I re-install the version of Windows indicated on the COA?
A: You may reinstall the Windows operating system indicated on the COA only if you can obtain the recovery media from the original manufacturer of the PC. If you cannot obtain the recovery media or the hard-disk recovery image for the PC, then a new license must be acquired.

Dear Microsoft:

WTF?


Dear MacRumor Mods:

According to MS, people selling Windows computers MUST HAVE the recovery partition on the hard drive or the MANUFACTURER'S ORIGINAL RECOVERY/INSTALL DISCS or the COA is null and void...