What does "Not for commercial use" mean in terms of Vista?

technx

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Sep 21, 2008
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I am thinking of getting an academic license version of Vista. It turns out that such a license means you can not use it for commercial use, only for personal/academic reasons.

Does that mean I'm not legally allowed to do anything that will make me money while using the academically licensed OS? So, will I technically not even be allowed to sell something on e-bay or design a website for monetary gain while using it?

I haven't really been able to find a clear definition of where the line for personal use ends and where commercial use begins.
 

technx

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I had an online chat with a MS customer service rep and he basically stated that it can't be used for anything that will lead to financial gain even if it is not in a business environment(e.g. selling something on e-bay at home). I guess I should just spend the money on the OEM version of Vista then.

I just e-mailed a question to customer care in hopes that they will be able to give more a detailed explanation of what "commercial use" actually constitutes.

I'll post an update if they reply back with anything significant.
 

technx

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A Microsoft employee e-mailed me back and gave me an 800 number to the Microsoft Licensing Team. I called it and spoke to someone who told me something different from the MS rep I spoke to in the chatroom yesterday. She said that if it isn't used in an business environment and only used for personal purposes you can use it for personal transactions. Paying bills online or selling something on ebay were examples that I brought up and she said it would be okay. So am I not really sure who is more correct in this case.

I am going to try to find the EULA for academic licensing to see if I can read the fine print for myself.
 
What the licencing team told you is correct - You are perfectly entitled to use your copy of Vista to conduct personal transactions. Banking, buying/selling of a personal nature on the web, etc etc etc...

And quite frankly, they wouldn't care about one copy. What they *do* care about is someone abusing a contact to purchase numbers of Student/Academic licences which then get used on the computers at a full fledged business.
 

technx

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When you put it that way scotteq, it makes a whole lot of sense. I think I will go ahead and try to get the academic edition. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the topic.
 

betaabc

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I am right now using my MSDN version of Windows Vista Ultimate from my own subscription. As Microsoft had put it, MSDN versions is for personal use only, so it cannot be used in a *commercial* environment.

So you see here, if I spent well 1000 plus bucks for a MSDN subscription and they won't even let me do some personal buy/sell over the Internet? What a joke it would be!

Commercial is limited to business. If you have a factory or a company, you have to purchase the business license or corporate versions, meaning that you cannot use your whatever OS that comes with a "not for commercial use" sticker.

You can find on MSDN website for more info. Believe me, these are true.

So go ahead with your license, if only you use it on your own computer.

 

technx

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I only plan on using Vista on my home pc. If I decide to design a few websites for some clients, and I would be doing all of this from home, would I be better off going for an OEM license?
 

Robbo083

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go with whatever you want to go with how is microsoft going to find out what you are doing? OEM is virtually the same as Retail anyway just without box and booklets so really whats the problem?
 

clarinase

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hey guys,

I'm going to bring this topic up again and I have a not-exactly-unique but may be a significant problem to some of us.

I am an entrepreneur and just started a registered company not long ago. The registered company is mainly to use for transacting with corporate clients and customers. I don't have a physical office and I am working from home generating invoices and doing websites for my customers on the internet.

The question is :

I have a registered company and the registered address is a virtual office address (not my home), but I am working everything on my personal computer at home from generating invoices to proposals to closing deals. So does that mean I am violating the "Not for commercial use" for all the software I bought? I mean, I don't purchase all these under business, I purchased them as single user and most of them written with "Not for commercial use". Will I get sued for it? Am I worrying too much?

The reason I brought it up again because I am not just making small money, I am making good 5 figures a year doing all these. Which is worrying me if I get caught for nothing or something I definitely have no idea of.

Please help.
 

clarinase

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Yes I do. I got like almost 80% off the retail price and it stated not for commercial use. I really dunnoe where is the line drawn?

how the hell that we must monitor all our actions on our PC? I mean.. I don't see any clause saying, "if you are making money consistently, then you should buy a commercial use software". and why should we as consumers succumb to all these? can't we make good money and the providers stay away not to rip our profits off? Isn't that eye sore?

Your help would be great.