it’s nice to see that microsoft haven’t bought up all the lawyers in the world. andrew katz argues that microsoft’s end user license agreement breaks eu laws in trying to limit what you can do with your copy of windows when you’re done with it. i love the disclaimer:

i’ve got to do the boring lawyer thing and say the foregoing is not advice: it’s my own personal view, so if you publish this and people get hammered by microsoft by trying to exercise the rights granted to them under e.u. law, i won’t either be (1) surprised or (2) liable. but I’m always in the market for (legitimate) second-hand copies of software. ffter all, unlike a mondeo with 100,000 miles on the clock, a second-hand copy of microsoft windows nt4.0 sp6 s in exactly the same showroom condition as it was the day the gold master was pressed. also in the same article the register report that microsoft have withdrawn their claims that it’s illegal to sell on a pc without the os it was sold with; they now say it’s “beneficial” to sell on a pc with it’s os, quite a difference really.