Rumblings from Brazil suggest that the mighty Microsoft may have lost out in a landmark Windows licence row.
A post on Techrights.org, said to be from Dr Roy Schestowitz, claims that a lowly consumer has gone to the small claims court in Brazil over not wanting to pay for a licence for Windows XP. And they've won.
The post links through to the original story in Portuguese on technotroll.org.
From a Google translation (apologies in advance to our Brazilian and Portuguese readers), it states that the saga started with the consumer buying a Lenovo netbook in April. It appears the netbook was bought from hypermarket group Carrefour.
The customer didn't want the Windows XP that came with it, and eventually the case reached the small claims court.
The post continues: “Before Judge, Carrefour admitted that it will reimburse the actual value of 229.00 concerning license unused Windows XP, contrary to what was offered before the conciliation.”
The poster then seems to go on to ponder whether they might donate some money that the Free Software Foundation, before adding: “Let it be a lesson to companies who deny reimbursement of the Windows license.”
They finish with the following observations:
"PS.1: The magic word is in the process of compensation: Sale Married
"PS.2: In front of the judge advocates are so humble ..."
Hopefully my comment can help clarify this a bit.
- The guy states that he's donating part of the refunded money (229 BR$, around 130 US$), to Free Software Foundation and another part to Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- The best translations for both PS messages would be:
PS1: The magic word on the reimbursement lawsuit is: tied sale.
PS2: Lawyers are so humble in front of a judge...
Long history made short, this lad purchased a Lenovo netbook and never intended to use the XP license that came with it, so it asked the vendor for a refund, something that was denied. So he opened a lawsuit on the Procon, the Brazilian bureau of consumer rights/protection and eventually won the case.
Note that the vendor was ordered to refund the money, and not MS.
Cheers!