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from the don't-stand-in-the-way-of-profits dept.
Electronics recycler Eric Lundgren was convicted of conspiracy and copyright infringement for his efforts regarding refurbishing old PCs. His sentence would have been 15 months in prison and a $50,000 fine except that he was granted an emergency stay of the sentence by a federal appeals court. Now his appeal is pending before the 11th Circuit though it has not yet been scheduled.
[...] McGloin also testified that Microsoft charges computer refurbishers about $25 for a new license and copy of the software but didn't differentiate that from what was done by Lundgren, who was not making a new copy of the software and intended his restore discs only for computers that were already licensed.
[...] Lundgren called his own expert witness, Glenn Weadock, an author of numerous software books who testified for the government in a major antitrust case against Microsoft that was resolved in 2001. Weadock was asked, "In your opinion, without a code, either product key or COA [Certificate of Authenticity], what is the value of these reinstallation discs?"
"Zero or near zero," Weadock said.
He should have listened to the experts like Ken Starks of Reglue. However, no mention was made by The Washington Post article about whether he or the court was aware that he could have improved the situation all the way around by simply upgrading the refurbished PCs to GNU/Linux instead of using a system that is always showing new ways to cause problems. The local LUG could well host an evening event with him as guest of honor to show how to improve the users' situation while staying out of jail.
Source : Eric Lundgren, 'e-waste' recycling innovator, faces prison for trying to extend life span of PCs
(Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Tuesday February 20 2018, @02:00AM (1 child)
The best way around it is to open up the laptop, pull out the Wi-Fi card and put one that is supported. It is relatively cheap, easy and well worth it.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:43PM
Eh, last time I tried FreeBSD it was pretty much unusable due to missing wifi and graphics drivers. At the time both were due to be included in the next release -- which came out a few months back -- but by that point I already had a reasonably effective Arch install up and running...been meaning to give it another shot, although I've recently added Void to my list too.
If you've got five year old hardware, continuing to wait probably won't help much. But if you just bought the thing, there's a decent chance that support will come in time.