No, they’re illegal several times over as you’ve got to pirate the thing in the first place to end up in a situation where you need one, and then they’re inherently a DRM circumvention device, which are illegal to possess, and then using them circumvents DRM, which is illegal to do. The upside is that you’re unlikely to be caught.
Comment on Windows 10 IoT LTSC 2021...'has reached end of support' warning (?!)
nullroot@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoI thought activation scripts were somewhat of a grey area legally?
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
nullroot@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
We’re talking about Windows ltsc aren’t we? microsoft.com/…/download-windows-11-iot-enterpris… the ISO is freely available on Microsofts website.
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s freely available for evaluation purposes (from that link - it’s freely available for other purposes from other links, too, and so are other editions of Windows), but that doesn’t mean you’re legally allowed to use those public links however you want. If the copyright holder says they’re for evaluation purposes only, then if you know you aren’t intending to pay even if you like it, then you’re not evaluating whether or not the download link is public, so it still counts as piracy. It’s still stealing to take produce from a roadside stall with an honesty box if you don’t pay even though the produce was just sitting out in the open.
nullroot@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Okay, so it’s not illegal to obtain the ISO as you said before, and you’re not breaking DRM, your breaking TOS. Yes, this is generally regarded as piracy and illegal, but downloading the ISO is not. Your analogy only works if the fruit stand has infinite fruit being cloned over and over again from the same original fruit automatically and costs the fruit stand practically nothing when you don’t pay.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The script is legal. Not paying for software that requires you to pay is illegal.
It’s like DeCSS code that strips drm from DVDs was legally grey but downloading movies you didn’t pay for is illegal.