Piracy in T&T

[Spazosaurus]

Hahahaha I wonder who is the man in that marriage. Man, just tell the woman that it had a pirated copy there before and you not responsible for that. You not wrong, and by buying a copy of xp for them, you accepting responsibility for something that u didnt do. Tell dem fire bun and talk done.

Poor saxman

Just say I have good news and bad news for you ma'am

Bad news is that you have a pirated copy of xp
Good news is that i just saved you a bunch of money on your new pc which you can use to pay your car insurance

[disciple]

dred i really doh see why you hadda foot the bill for a copy of xp

as you said,  u use the same cd they had on the pavilion....   

a new copy of XP was not discussed or included int he upgrade you did, but you are perfectly fine with sourcing a copy for her ( at her expense) if thas the route she wanna go. could even do it at cost price, but by no means should you pay for it.. thas real nonsense

[Saxito Pau]

Thanks for the feedback thus far. Update time:

F**KING IDIOTS!!

spoke to them agian a around 8.30pm Sunday night.

These people good yes..
Effectively they not interested in hearing my point, dismissing the start of my argument as "irrelevant". The wife doesn't want to talk to me.

I manage to deduce that some other techie guy who tried to fix the old PC  and was taking too long with it may have been the bootleg culprit. (which means that I  may have inadvertently do crap then, by assuming the bootleg copy was the copy they used). but then their original HP XP CD in south by (edit) the husband's cousin.

All they want is "resolution": me pay to buy the XP and install it.

I remained calm through the conversation (till I hung up and nearly cuss)....... they decide the conversation was going nowhere and want to talk tomorrow.
I feel like I go jes buy the damn copy, give it to them in their hand and tell them I will do no further business with them on the ground of their refusal to listen to me. So because they go to benny hinn's website every day and watch his streaming videos they have divine moral high ground now?

The point they refuse to allow me to say was this:
Supposing that the previous technican HAD indeed fixed their computer? he would have used a bootleg copy on it. In fact he DID!!
They'd have gotten it back working. I would have never entered the picture. WGA probably would have gottin on the PC, say weeks or months later, what would they have done then? The original CD quite in SOUTH, probably been copied and installed on multiple systems as well!!

In dealing with the fact the the wife now gonna run like a damn tattle-tale school kid at 7.30am Monday morning to work and say to her employers, "Oh, that guy I punt on to you is a software pirate. He put bootleg windows on my PC and on yours, too!" (I can only imagine the can of worms this gonna open..)

Can it, woman!!! the PC had bootleg BEFORE I even came into the picture. Fault me for not advising the company that bootleg was on their systems. Fine. But doh trash me alone. Trash the previous techie guy as well. Would  the company have said, "OK, let's go get the number of genuine XPs required to sort this out." That would make any techie happy, but the reality is which company gonna spend that kinda money on  licensing when their computers already working as they want to bootleg?

All the time husband happy! The computer working fast! One week later he suddenly fine his older laptop moving faster....he initally was talking about him and I splitting the cost of the XP... but now I strongly suspect the go change his tune; most lkely at the wife's prompting...

sigh.. what do I do next? I not even interested in talking anymore short of quickly explaining my point and saying flat-out "you buy it, i install it"

EDIT: Came up with one semi-genius idea, though potientially costly:
Agree to their terms and buy and install the genuine XP as they asked...
and after the install start to ask for original CDs for all  their software: CD-burner, DVD-ROM, Office etc.
when they don't have it, "i'm sorry, but you'll need to provide the license to allow me to install." Leave them with just opensource/freeware. And they want legal? no problem! Licensed original CD please!!

[disciple]

i dunno if is the same thing with HP, but with Dell XP install cds you can use it any Dell machine ( does a bios check, i guess, to see if is dell equipment)
and it passes muster with WGA etc, doesnt need validation etc

so if you can find a HP cd somewhere, perhaps that may save you the cost of XP..   

also,

I manage to deduce that some other techie guy who tried to fix the old PC  and was taking too long with it may have been the bootleg culprit. (which means that I  may have inadvertently do crap then, by assumin the bootleg copy was the copy they used). but then their original HP XP CD in south by a cousin.

who cousin it by? yours , theirs or the original  technician?   

where did you get the bootleg xp from? not in the pavilion cd case? ent is their own, as far as you concerned?
so if they expected you to pull a jesus an turn the bootleg into original?  these clowns watchin too much benny hinn

[Qloxx]

There are many ways to skin a cat and thats a pretty good one  . But seriously i build pcs and up to now no one ever complained about a bootleg xp,cant believe that their are people really go through that crap and as a tech guy i feel
your pain doh worry dah same Benny hinn site go give dem a virus .

[steveunderwood0]

hey.  If they still have an original disk (albeit by their cousin) then why the heck do they need another one?  Tell them to shaddup, bring their "original" disk back from the south (as that it should be with the computer that it was sold with) and you will be happy to install it for them.

[BeoBear]

Dred....I dunno what to say yes..it does bother me that people like them christian..they does be up on some high friggin horse..........I figure the best answer would be to buy em some cheap ass old copy of xp ,or get one that is original but not in use, install it  and then drop the burnt software bomb on em.....oh and virus their pc if you can for an extra 50 points.

[Saxito Pau]

To answer steve.... from what i read up. Microsoft policy states that OEM XP licenses CANNOT be transfered from one computer to another, even if the old computer no longer in use... for all we know that original HP CD might ba a restore CD.

That aside.. i get a phone call from the husband this morning now.. I was able to get in the point about the other techie using bootleg as well... but that was it...he change his tune again. All he wants to hear now is me calling him with a "resolution" .... .even accused me of being defensive. Yuh want defensive? go by Greendot!!

Frankly he could take his "resolution" and shove it up his (stop it! Saxman, you have to be "Christian-like", remember?)

I just feel if I decide to conceed and give them the origianl XP that the wife go report that to her bosses and then THEY would want the same redress...

At this point I gonna seek legal counsel, yes.

but if possible I will call him and say the resolution is that "you buy the XP, i install it, I verify that you can watch benny hinn whole day every day (yes, he friggin emphasize benny hinn!) and life goes on... I doubt he go accept it

oh well.... more breaking news will follow soon....

[steveunderwood0]

u prolly right about having to do it for her office and stuff too...so you would definitely be opening up a can of worms....but I suspect that the can is already opened. 

U know what they say though, hind sight is always 20/20. 

[disciple]

dred the woman acting like u take thier orignal software

if they admit that the original cd was down south, how they expect you to get it to install?

dred, i gettin vex just thinkin about it..

but no way in hell should you purchase an original cd for them, unless they reimbursing you for it
the upgrade was for parts and labour, not so?
if she wanna talk original software, she hadda talk money too

[Saxito Pau]

Resolution, finally!

Seeking professional legal counsel,  I was advised that they more or less have a task to prove any wrong doing on my part.

My final decision, though is to give them a cash refund and close this case.

I went to the Four Roads Police Station and asked them to be mediators for giving the cash refund.... I explained the core of the story (even mentioned that I used bootleg software on the client's system and explaining how WGA works) and even they couldn't understand what the clients really wanted for redress. They outright laughed at the Benny Hinn part. The officer called the husband and advised him of my decision, and he agreed. I wanted it to to be done at the police station, but husband had his way with the location: at his house.

The procedure will be:
I meet the officer at the police station just before 9pm tomorrow night (Aug 30th). We go to the client's house... under his supervision I remove their parts from my system. I return their scrapped system (and pirate CD!). I give them their refund. We all sign that the refund was done to everyone's satisfaction and go our separate ways.


I gonna deduct as much as $275 out of that $3700 they getting back (in cash!) for their damaging the hinge for the case that hides the CD drives. I DEFINITELY delivered it in perfect condition and they were DEFINITELY made aware of the damage BEFORE this mess started. Let them challenge THAT!!

But yuh know what's the best part?
I have up to 3 officers now wanting to do business with me. They asked for business cards, even while I was stating my case to them!! As my mom told me, when one door closes, several more open...

Much thank yous to all who read and give feedback... I hope my story is informative and will aid you in your dealings with clients. In future I go just let my (new) clients know one time when I encounter bootleg software and let them decide what they want to do about it....

[Gambitt]

Good riddance to bad rubbish. The bastards probably got tizzic when they heard the police was involved. To be honest it sounds more and more like they were trying to pull a fast one on you and have that dangling over your head.

While you at it, sign them up for every spam e-mail list you can find. The husband sounds like he would be better off if he gets some of them enlargement pills that always on sale.

[Synchronomyst]

Hey! SaxMan! I bought a new PC from Dell today. There's some -really- weird about it...I've been trying to figure out all day what this sticker on the side is supposed to mean....


http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/6269/bhajn0.jpg


Strange...

[Saxito Pau]

Synchro, that is outstanding!!

Anyhow.. final chapter:

Whole day I receiving calls form these people. I refuse to answer them. No less than 8 attempts during the course of the day. In any case my cell phone batery had died that morning so I couldn't receive ANY calls anyway.

The wife call my home and get into argument with my mom and all..... still stressing about going to Benny Hinn's website!! My mom had to tell her she deals in garbage and hang up on her.

With that one I get real pissed off and decide all biz go occur in the Police Station.

At 9pm I had the police call them again and given them my new demands... come to the station.

At 9:30 pm the husband came to the station, but refused to come out of his car. I took my time to strip my system of his parts, put them back in his old useless trash... made him sign for receiving $3600 in cash ($100 deducted for damagin my case) and that is that.

well by end of weekend I gonna put the system as a barebones up for sale in the Trading Grounds I put up the link here:
http://gatt.carigamers.com/index.php/topic,9054.0.html

[steveunderwood0]

heh.  at least you are done with it man.  I know it's not the resolution that you sought, but at least it's better than what could have possibly came from it all. 

and y u guys always wanna sell stuff when I ain't got any money...oh yeah, it's cuz I never have any money!  For any of you that haven't already walked down the path of pauperhood, don't get married unless either you have to, or she has a lot more money than you do!!!

[New Era Outlaw]

Sorry, guys, but somebody blew the whistle on this.
All refs to religion and...(ahem) 'personal enlargement' removed.
Stick to the topic at hand, please, and no more talk about people's religion. Somebody's bound to be offended.
(Well, a bit late for that, but say what.)

[vivman1107]

So, back on topic ... I was just reading up on free software and have a couple links for you to check out.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

The first is "The Free Software Definition" by the GNU Project. It basically describes what free software is really about ... Free as in "free spech" not "free beer".

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html

The second link is an article about "Why Software Should Not Have Owners". It is a really interesting read on copyright, piracy and other issues relating to free software.