Hey Zuck, Hold My Beer
April 26, 2018 6:42 AM Subscribe
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is a weird and crappy-sounding situation, but given the combination of sticky legal process/argument stuff at the heart of it we'd probably be better off with a more thorough article or set of links to lay out the territory than this kinda short blurby approach. -- cortex
Christ, what an asshole.
I know that trademarks have to be defended or they can be lost, but does everything have to be litigated this aggressively -- is there no "prosecutorial discretion" in IP law?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:54 AM on April 26, 2018
I know that trademarks have to be defended or they can be lost, but does everything have to be litigated this aggressively -- is there no "prosecutorial discretion" in IP law?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:54 AM on April 26, 2018
He was convicted for taking the free software that he did not own, burning it to a disk, and then selling it.
Unfortunately that does sound like counterfeiting to me. It wasn't his intention, but I don't think that matters.
posted by muddgirl at 6:59 AM on April 26, 2018
Unfortunately that does sound like counterfeiting to me. It wasn't his intention, but I don't think that matters.
posted by muddgirl at 6:59 AM on April 26, 2018
C'mon, Microsoft might be a giant corporation but I promise you that they do not have the power to "send" anyone to jail. This was a criminal prosecution by the US government. What a horrible headline from boingboing. If you can deal with the soft paywall (I think? I have a subscription), the Washington Post has a much better article.
While this criminal prosecution was egregious, "fake news" headline bullshit like this only contributes to the dumbing-down of society.
posted by exogenous at 6:59 AM on April 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
While this criminal prosecution was egregious, "fake news" headline bullshit like this only contributes to the dumbing-down of society.
posted by exogenous at 6:59 AM on April 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
Can someone help me understand the sequence of events here. According to the story:
Part of his business is downloading free restore disks from PC manufacturers' websites and bundling them with refurbed PCs, each of which has a valid license to install that version of Windows, along with a valid license key.
When a shipment of Lundgren's restore disks was intercepted on its way into the USA from China, he was brought up on trial. Lundgren pleaded guilty, but argued that since the disks' contents could lawfully be downloaded for free, and since the disks wouldn't work without valid license keys, the disks themselves had a value of $0.
If he gets the disks by downloading them (which seems an odd way of saying he downloads software, which I presume is what he's doing), what were the presumably physical disks that were being shipped from China? And it says he pleaded guilty, but it doesn't say what he pleaded guilty to.
Is it that he has an operation in China that downloads the software and burns them onto physical disks, which he imports to the US? And is the crime he's charged with is counterfeiting software?
I feel like whatever happened is probably clear to people who understand a bit more about the relevant issues in play here than I do, but for me the story as told is very confusing.
posted by layceepee at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2018
Part of his business is downloading free restore disks from PC manufacturers' websites and bundling them with refurbed PCs, each of which has a valid license to install that version of Windows, along with a valid license key.
When a shipment of Lundgren's restore disks was intercepted on its way into the USA from China, he was brought up on trial. Lundgren pleaded guilty, but argued that since the disks' contents could lawfully be downloaded for free, and since the disks wouldn't work without valid license keys, the disks themselves had a value of $0.
If he gets the disks by downloading them (which seems an odd way of saying he downloads software, which I presume is what he's doing), what were the presumably physical disks that were being shipped from China? And it says he pleaded guilty, but it doesn't say what he pleaded guilty to.
Is it that he has an operation in China that downloads the software and burns them onto physical disks, which he imports to the US? And is the crime he's charged with is counterfeiting software?
I feel like whatever happened is probably clear to people who understand a bit more about the relevant issues in play here than I do, but for me the story as told is very confusing.
posted by layceepee at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2018
Restore OS may be free as in beer, but not free as in speech. Lundgren pled guilty to counterfeiting - he just argued that the damages were zero.
posted by muddgirl at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2018
posted by muddgirl at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2018
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posted by inconstant at 6:44 AM on April 26, 2018 [3 favorites]