Hello all,

This is my first post on this site. I have about 300 OEM licenses for Windows 98 SE and I'm trying to figure out a way to get rid of them. Microsoft has strict policies regarding the resell of licenses with software. See, I have the OEM certificates....but no media... Does anyone know of a ligitimate way to distribute these licenses?

Thanks

Legalities are a basket of snakes that you won't find many people want to get into, no, I don't have an answer, most people will think they're pirated, so won't answer.

As far as I know the Microsoft does not bind the license to the installation medium. So you can basically sell burned copies or preinstalled copies, as long as you resell the licenses under the conditions stated in the OEM contract, and give out the license stickers with the serial numbers. You should check whether the EULA of any particular OEM installation specifically refers to the medium, or just the software.

But I'm not an actual authority on this, so don't sue me if it's wrong.

Hi hybrid125 !

According to the M$, you cannot sell licenses without the computer there were on the first time.

You might wanna read this article.

This is an interesting part of intellectual property you know...

But really, you probably shouldn't worry. Tons of OS licences are being sold on the net everyday.

Ebay seems to be fine with this as long as you sell a piece of hardware in the same time (like an old RAM slot...) for exemple.

Have you ever used your licenses or are they brand new (just without a media) ?

I'm aghast to hear that anyone is even thinking about licensing an OS that's already been Abandoned by its maker.

Like who really gives a whack?

Windows 98, 98/SE and even ME will install with only a lic. key for that OS being available during the installation.

There is NO communication to be done with MS either during or after this process.

NO registration or validation is required, or even possible.

MS isn't going to offer you any more updates or technical assistance for those 'abandoned' OS's anyway.

If you have any OS from ME back, you're on your own.

Cheers!

B)