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Lenovo Must Pay Damages for Pre-Installing Windows

posted by martyb on Tuesday March 02 2021, @05:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the windows-refund dept.

canopic jug writes:

The Free Software Foundation Europe(FSFE) (no connections to the Free Software Foundation(FSF), despite the name) has logged a win in Italy in court for the freedom to choose the operating system on new computers. Luca Bonissi won after two years of court battles. He won the first round in a kind of small claims court, but Lenovo responded by lawyering up and attacking. The court eventually rejected all of Lenovos argument, confirming that the right to reimbursment for pre-installed software is due. Further, an additional 20k EUR in damages were awarded to Bonissi.

In a historic judgment in Italy, in a case initiated by FSFE supporter Luca Bonissi, Lenovo was ordered to pay 20,000 euros in damages for abusive behaviour in denying to refund the price of a pre-installed Windows licence. In a motivating gesture for the Free Software cause, Luca donated 15,000 euros to the FSFE.

[...] It should go without saying that everyone should be able to freely choose the operating system to run on their personal computers. Free Software is about granting the liberty for people to freely run software they desire and, consequently, decline the software not respecting their freedom. But Microsoft and the vast majority of hardware manufacturers dishonour this principle by dictating which operating system their customers must use, forcing them to run Windows even when they simply do not want to.

See also the FSFE Windows Refund Guide and the Racketware Guide about how to avoid the Windows Tax.

Previously:
(2014) Windows Tax now Illegal in Italy

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:16PM (1 child)

    by pkrasimirov (3358) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:16PM (#1119045)

    There is difference between buying and licensing. If I buy the hardware then it is mine to do as I please. On the other hand software is licensed (as in copyright), not sold.

    So I am free to install, deinstall, destroy, reassemble, crash, burn and do whatever with my hardware. Because it is my property.

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  • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday March 02 2021, @10:11PM

    by Mykl (1112) on Tuesday March 02 2021, @10:11PM (#1119064)

    I believe you can install other OSes on an M1 Mac, however Apple is not obliged to make that easy.

    Agree with parent post too - Apple would happily refund you $0 for the OS.