Piracy, windows...?
Hello all, i was wondering could you be punished by law for using an illegal copy of windows? and if so what would the penalties be?
Answers:
Using it isn't illegal, but knowingly installing or copying it is. Don't worry, though, you can only get in trouble if somebody knows that it's an unlicensed or cracked copy and he reports you. As far as I know, the only people who ever get in trouble for Windows piracy is either if they distribute illegal copies to the public (via stores or P2P networks), or if a business owner installs unlicensed copies on a bunch of his office workstations and a disgruntled employee (typically some computer technician who he fired) turns him in. It's extremely unlikely that you can get in trouble just for having it on your computer at home, and Microsoft's lawyers really only go after the big fish anyway. However, if you attempt to perform your Windows Updates at Microsoft's website and they detect that it's an illegal copy, they simply won't let you download any of the updates (security patches, bug fixes and such). They won't however, send the cops after you because they can't record any of your private information. As for the penalties, well, business owners running unlicensed copies of Windows have been known to be sued and fined for up to $100,000 per illegal copy, but the judgements usually turn out to be less than that.
I'm not trying to scare you away, but it is a federal crime...Plus microsoft will wanna kick your *** for pirating windows
You could meet Bill Gates lol
Matt
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