Originally Posted by
c303a
The part that you can look at is the word assembler. That is you. I have built a lot of boxes and have installed OEM in all of them. It is legal and even a reputable software retailer will sell it to you as long as you buy "qualifiying hardware. (Motherboard, or hard drive, or cpu etc.)
Assembler would be true; however, that is not the end of the statement... you have to sell this to a third-party.
"To distribute the Software or Hardware in this Pack, you must be a System Builder and accept this license. “System Builder” means an original equipment manufacturer, an assembler, a refurbisher, or a software pre-installer that sells the Customer System(s) to a third party."
I also refer you back to item 4 of the licensing agreement.
"4. Limited License. If you comply with the terms of this license, Microsoft grants you a limited license to distribute the Software or
Hardware. Except as granted in this license, you may not use, run, copy, modify, display, distribute, repackage or reassemble the
Software, Hardware, OPK or any part of them. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, Hardware
or OPK, except to the extent expressly permitted by this license or by applicable law notwithstanding this prohibition. All rights not
expressly granted are reserved."
"It is legal and even a reputable software retailer will sell it to you as long as you buy "qualifiying hardware". (Motherboard, or hard drive, or cpu etc.)"
True, that is because they have complied with item 5c, which makes you the third party.
"5. Distribution.
a. Software Preinstallation.
i. For each unit of Software in the Pack, you must pre-install one copy of the Software on a Customer System prior to
distribution. If the Software includes more than one language version, you must install only one language version.
ii. For such pre-installation, you must use the OPK provided in the Pack or otherwise made available by us. You may use the
information, tools and materials contained in the OPK solely to preinstall the Software in accordance with the OPK. See www.
microsoft.com/oem/sblicense/OPK for additional information about the OPK. You may not distribute the OPK to the end user.
iii. See
http://oem.microsoft.com/starter for additional hardware requirements when pre-installing Microsoft Windows Starter
Editions.
iv. This preinstallation requirement does not apply to server Software. Instead, server Software may be distributed inside the
Customer System package.
b. End User License Terms. You must distribute the Software pursuant to the end user license terms (“License Terms”) that
accompany it. Under the License Terms, you are the licensor.
c. Hardware.
You must distribute each Hardware unit with either a Customer System, or another non-Microsoft computer hardware
component. If you distribute a Hardware unit with a Customer System, you must preinstall any associated Software drivers
and programs provided to you in the Pack. Before you distribute the Hardware, you must test it to ensure that the Hardware
functions properly with the Customer System. Microsoft makes no warranty or representation regarding the Hardware’s
compliance with any federal, state or local laws or regulations relating to computing devices or products sold to the public.
d. Alternate versions. The Pack may include more than one platform version of the Software such as 32-bit or 64-bit. You may only
preinstall one version but must distribute both versions to the end user.
e. Processor versions. For Server products, you may not preinstall or distribute a processor version of the Software on a Customer
System that includes more processors than the highest number of processors listed on the Pack.
f. You must distribute the complete unit of Software, including the COA."