This is why I only use & support Free & Open Source Software in my personal life. This man is going to prison. Prison.

"A California man who built a sizable business out of recycling electronic waste is headed to federal prison for 15 months after a federal appeals court in Miami rejected his claim that the “restore disks” he made to extend the lives of computers had no financial value, instead ruling that he had infringed Microsoft’s products to the tune of $700,000."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/24/recycling-innovator-eric-lundgren-loses-appeal-on-computer-restore-discs-must-serve-15-month-prison-term/?noredirect=on

Seriously. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck the justice system that allowed this.

The man was actually (and hopefully will continue) making a difference as it relates to ewaste, built-in obsolescence, et al.

#Ewaste #FOSS #Lundgren

“I don’t think anybody in that courtroom understood what a restore disk was,” Lundgren said.

This is key. Most folks don't understand tech. The whole "You wouldn't steal a car!" ad campaign is an example.

If that car was open sourced, and I could download it and print, yes... I'd "steal" a car. But that isn't stealing.

A jury of your peers means your average lay person. They think in a corporate mindset. Arbitrary "losses" equal prison time.

Another big thing...

We say that Lundgren should not have installed Windows. Perhaps he should have installed Linux....

Many of your devices, you don't own. You "lease." Even the act of wiping the original operating system and installing FOSS OS's is illegal.

Look at John Deer. Look at "rooting" cell phones.

We need FOSSH (Software & Hardware) solutions.

@tinker i agree this is bad, but isn't the entire issue that he wanted to monetize the restore disks?

he argued the value of the disks was zero, but wanted to sell them for $0.25 per, and he accepted $3,400 for 28,000

use of Windows restore disks isn't illegal (Dell ships them), creation isn't illegal (sysadmins create custom images), but how many things are marked "not for resale"?

yes FOSS is a universal answer. but the issue is exchanging copyrighted code for money (including GPLv3, etc)