This question is regarding my personal equipment which is NOT in any way used for business gain. I have an older model HP Pavilion tower that originally shipped with XP Home. I very much would like to use this as a file & print server. We own several HP notebook computers and I had taken one of the discs containing XP Pro installation and I was required to activate. The Microshaft rep informed me that this is actually a violation of SOX!
My questions are as follows:
1) Why is Microsoft requiring activation when I actually had Pro installed and running previously? Note that the previous installation was fresh, not an upgrade.
2) Is it actually considered software piracy to use a license from one computer on anoter if they are personal machines not used for business purposes?
3) How does SOX apply in this case? I’m certainly not making any money with this!
I cannot believe there is no longer anything considered “fair use” anymore when being used for personal endeavors. This is strictly used for my family because we each have a wireless notebook and it will save us from having to either purchase a print server or a new license, even having to go to the printer and plug in.
This is a real problem because I have intended use as outlined above. We own 3 notebook computers, all of the same make as the desktop and each running XP Pro.
Thanks in advance for your help
