Poop Shute

A couple days ago I listed a bunch of stuff on EBAY that I didn't want nor had any use for.

One of these things was a perfectly legal and fully licensed copy of Microsoft Word 2000 that came with a computer I bought in 2000. This version is the full version on a CD with a certificate of authenticity.

I very explicitly put all that info and more into the listing, because I know that Ebay sellers can be shady sometimes and sell pirated copies of stuff. I wanted it to be VERY clear that this was the real deal. I even put the certificate in the picture so that users could see it was legit.

In the first day it sold at my "Buy It Now" Price, and that was that... or so I thought.

Yesterday I got a message from an agency calling themselves the Microsoft NetSafe Team. They operate under the auspices that they are protecting Ebay buyers from the shady people I mentioned, but the fact is they operate to protect Microsoft's "intellectual property." The message states that I am in violation of copyright law and lots of blah blah blah, and the long and short of it is, my listing was removed from Ebay.

I had already been paid, and the package was in the mail, so I wasn't really upset, but I responded anyway. I wanted to assure them that they had it wrong and they need to have human beings doublecheck the data that their automatic searches yield up.

Turns out that I was, in fact, violating a law. Turns out that Microsoft has VERY specific licensing that states that any copy of their software that comes bundled with a computer system is ONLY legal to be used with that system. Any other use and/or distribution is a violation of their licensing agreement that I apparently agreed to when buying the system.

Think about this people. How insidious is that? That CD that I bought with my money is essentially NOT mine after I bought it. Microsoft's license makes it their own de facto property, even after I paid for it. Not only am I never allowed to sell it used, but I am legally not even allowed to install it on any other computer that I will ever own.
WHAT?!?! How and why are they able to get away with this? Can somebody answer me that?

I bought the f**ker! It is mine. If I have no use for an outdated program I should be able to sell it like any other CD that I don't want.

It's times like these that I hope for the biblical plagues of Egypt to teach corporations like Microsoft a lesson.

"Let my software go!"