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Re: Is it legal...
In my opinion (contrary to what others are saying) it probably is legal
if you have your own legal COA and product key. But it's dangerous,
because you don't know what you are getting (could be virus infected,
for example).
If it's the wrong version (retail vs. OEM, for example), it won't accept
your product key anyway, so that is not an issue.
If two people (unrelated and living in different households) both bought
the same make/model of laptop, and one loses his media, I'm pretty sure
that it is not illegal to borrow the other person's media (not his
product key, but just the media).
In situations like this, I will do what seems to me to be "right" and
"fair" (even taking into account Microsoft's interests) and not worry
too much about the exact letter (as opposed to the intent) of the license.
BUT, that doesn't change the real dangers associated with downloading
software from an unknown source. Microsoft will replace media for a
small fee if it's not OEM media, if it is OEM media (e.g. Dell, Gateway,
HP, Sony, Toshiba, ..... etc.) then you have to contact the OEM. If you
purchased the OS stand alone without hardware then it's either retail
media or "generic OEM" media, either way, call Microsoft.
C-M0n3y wrote:
> ...to download a copy of windws from the net that doesnt come with akey(i
> want to use the one i purchased, but i sat on the cd...)
>
> thx
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