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Eric Lundgren is an electronics recycler. He noticed that lots of people throw away perfectly good Microsoft computers because they don’t know how to re-install the operating system which they have a license to use. The software can be downloaded for free. So he downloaded it and made re-installation disks.
And now he’s going to jail for fifteen months for “software piracy.” Microsoft is happy that people are trashing their computers and doesn’t want anyone to stop them.
Furthermore, the powers-that-be in the court system threatened to be extra hard on Lundgren if he spoke to the media!
The Los Angeles Times reports, “Electronics-recycling innovator is going to prison for trying to extend computers’ lives.”
Glenn Weadock, a former expert witness for the government in its antitrust case against Microsoft, was asked: “In your opinion, without a code, either product key or COA [certificate of authenticity], what is the value of these re-installation discs?”
“Zero or near zero,” Weadock said.
[…]
Still, Hurley decided that Lundgren’s 28,000 restore discs had a value of $700,000, and that dollar amount qualified Lundgren for a 15-month term, along with a $50,000 fine. The judge said he disregarded Weadock’s testimony. “I don’t think anybody in that courtroom understood what a restore disc was,” Lundgren said.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit deferred to Hurley in his judgment that Weadock was not credible, and that “while experts on both sides may have identified differences in functionality in the discs, [Hurley] did not clearly err in finding them substantially equivalent.”
[…]
“I got in the way of their agenda,” Lundgren said, “this profit model that’s way more profitable than I could ever be.”
Lundgren said he wasn’t sure when he would be surrendering. He said prosecutors in Miami told him he could have a couple of weeks to put his financial affairs in order, including plans for his company of more than 100 employees. “But I was told if I got loud in the media, they’d come pick me up,” Lundgren said. “If you want to take my liberty, I’m going to get loud.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami declined to comment Monday.
“I am going to prison, and I’ve accepted it,” Lundgren said Monday. “What I’m not okay with is people not understanding why I’m going to prison. Hopefully my story can shine some light on the e-waste epidemic we have in the United States, how wasteful we are. At what point do people stand up and say something? I didn’t say something, I just did it.”
Guy Jailed for Helping People Fix Their Microsoft Computers
And now he’s going to jail for fifteen months for “software piracy.” Microsoft is happy that people are trashing their computers and doesn’t want anyone to stop them.
Furthermore, the powers-that-be in the court system threatened to be extra hard on Lundgren if he spoke to the media!
The Los Angeles Times reports, “Electronics-recycling innovator is going to prison for trying to extend computers’ lives.”
Glenn Weadock, a former expert witness for the government in its antitrust case against Microsoft, was asked: “In your opinion, without a code, either product key or COA [certificate of authenticity], what is the value of these re-installation discs?”
“Zero or near zero,” Weadock said.
[…]
Still, Hurley decided that Lundgren’s 28,000 restore discs had a value of $700,000, and that dollar amount qualified Lundgren for a 15-month term, along with a $50,000 fine. The judge said he disregarded Weadock’s testimony. “I don’t think anybody in that courtroom understood what a restore disc was,” Lundgren said.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit deferred to Hurley in his judgment that Weadock was not credible, and that “while experts on both sides may have identified differences in functionality in the discs, [Hurley] did not clearly err in finding them substantially equivalent.”
[…]
“I got in the way of their agenda,” Lundgren said, “this profit model that’s way more profitable than I could ever be.”
Lundgren said he wasn’t sure when he would be surrendering. He said prosecutors in Miami told him he could have a couple of weeks to put his financial affairs in order, including plans for his company of more than 100 employees. “But I was told if I got loud in the media, they’d come pick me up,” Lundgren said. “If you want to take my liberty, I’m going to get loud.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami declined to comment Monday.
“I am going to prison, and I’ve accepted it,” Lundgren said Monday. “What I’m not okay with is people not understanding why I’m going to prison. Hopefully my story can shine some light on the e-waste epidemic we have in the United States, how wasteful we are. At what point do people stand up and say something? I didn’t say something, I just did it.”
Guy Jailed for Helping People Fix Their Microsoft Computers
