[Infowarrior] - Boy, MS is just asking for trouble here...

[Richard Forno]

Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use
http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/193300234

By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb Technology News

Microsoft has released licenses for the Windows Vista operating system that
dramatically differ from those for Windows XP in that they limit the number
of times that retail editions can be transferred to another device and ban
the two least-expensive versions from running in a virtual machine.

The new licenses, which were highlighted by the Vista team on its official
blog Tuesday, add new restrictions to how and where Windows can be used.

"The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device
one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the
"licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home
Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista
is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once.

The new policy is narrower than Windows XP's. In the same section, the
license for Windows XP Home states: "You may move the Software to a
different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely
remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer." There is no limit
to the number of times users can make this move. Windows XP Professional's
license is identical.

Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home
Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the
software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise
emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and
Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM.

Vista Home Basic, at $199 for a full version and $99 for an upgrade, and
Vista Home Premium ($239/$159), are the two most-affordable retail editions
of the operating system scheduled to appear on store shelves in January
2007.

Although the Vista team's blog did not point out these changes, it did
highlight others. "Two notable changes between Windows Vista license terms
and those for Windows XP are: 1) failure of a validation check results in
the loss of access to specific features; and 2) an increase in our warranty
period from 90 days to 1 year, which brings Windows in line with most other
Microsoft products," wrote Vista program manager Nick White.

Specifically, the Vista license calls out the ramifications of a failed
validation check of Vista.

"The software will from time to time validate the software, update or
require download of the validation feature of the software," it reads. "If
after a validation check, the software is found not to be properly licensed,
the functionality of the software may be affected."

Vista's new anti-piracy technologies, collectively dubbed "Software
Protection Platform," have met with skepticism by analysts and criticism by
users. Under the new program, a copy of Vista that's judged to be in
violation of its license, or is counterfeit, is disabled after a set period,
leaving the user access only to the default Web browser, and then only for
an hour at a time.