Thread: Would it be piracy?

I still have my old windows 2000 cd and the license/serial that came with it. Which I still use sometimes.

I have a friend who also has been using windows 2000 but really needs to reinstall. She has the original license/serial but her original cd is damaged. Windows 2000 is no longer officially for sale, and those who have unsold copies want more money than when it was new.

If I make a copy of my original cd and give the copy to her- would that piracy because I copied a cd? Or would it be ok because she would still be using her own legal license/serial to install it?

If it isn't piracy, there is Question 2,
I'm pretty sure I can make a bootable copy of my cd, but is the windows 2000 cd copy-protected in some way so that that the windows install program will know the difference and ruin her computer because it thinks she's an evil software pirate?

Even if it was piracy, why should you care?

Yes it is piracy.
But the chance of you getting caught for that is near none.

It's a 10+ year old OS that no one with Windows cares about anymore.

Just do it.

But to answer the question, no it's not.

I may not be at much risk for being discovered as providing a copy. But she uses her windows 2000 online, and would have a much greater chance of being noticed as a pirate copy, if it is considered piracy. Especially if the OS somehow knows it was installed from a copy instead of an original. Micro$oft does case about every last penny they can legally extort from accused copyright infringers. I wouldn't want to expose anyone to that. So far, the replies here have gone both ways, 1 for piracy, 1 for not.

I have a full on pirated copy of Vista that I go online with for hours a day, they can't "find out" if you use the proper serials and whatnot.

Copying the disc to replace a broken one is far from piracy.

Originally Posted by starry eyes

I may not be at much risk for being discovered as providing a copy. But she uses her windows 2000 online, and would have a much greater chance of being noticed as a pirate copy, if it is considered piracy. Especially if the OS somehow knows it was installed from a copy instead of an original. Micro$oft does case about every last penny they can legally extort from accused copyright infringers. I wouldn't want to expose anyone to that. So far, the replies here have gone both ways, 1 for piracy, 1 for not.

That would be illegal on Microsoft's part.

Originally Posted by starry eyes

I may not be at much risk for being discovered as providing a copy. But she uses her windows 2000 online, and would have a much greater chance of being noticed as a pirate copy, if it is considered piracy. Especially if the OS somehow knows it was installed from a copy instead of an original. Micro$oft does case about every last penny they can legally extort from accused copyright infringers. I wouldn't want to expose anyone to that. So far, the replies here have gone both ways, 1 for piracy, 1 for not.

So "Micro$oft" is evil because they don't want people stealing their products? You're a huge idiot, I hope you know that. It's common business sense to make it so it's not super-easy to steal your product and give it to your friends. I'd like to see how much money you would make by selling an operating system for a couple hundred dollars and allowing anyone to take it for free, yet insisting on buying it.

I guess Bill Gates is also a money-hoarding evil man, which is why he gives a lot of his money away to charity, right? He's probably contributed more to society than Linus or Steve Jobs.