It is my understanding that the Windows installation media can be obtained legally for free through Digital River, for example, from here:
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-58997.iso
If one was to download and install this on a computer without an operating system, they have 30 days to purchase a retail copy of Windows so they can activate it.
My question: if I was to use this to install Windows on a computer, but not activate it, would it be legal to sell that computer? Of course, I would make the customer aware that they need to activate Windows within 30 days with a separately purchased
copy of Windows, or use another operating system. The idea is that I am
installing Windows as a service for evaluation purposes, I am not selling
software licenses in any form.
I know that this is not how software licensing is supposed to work, and yes, I have read the whole EULA and all of the licensing information that I have found on the Internet, but I can't get a clear answer. Nowhere does it explicitly say that something
like this is not allowed. If it is not, on what grounds would Microsoft make a legal claim against it? Or in other words, why not?
I would really rather ask Microsoft about this directly, but I can't find a way to do that without registering for the System Builder program- if anyone could tell me how to contact MS about this that would also be helpful.
