Win 98 product key

[Ken Mackay]

I've formatted hard drive and reloaded windows 98 but my product key doesn't work ( message said invalid) I've used the cd and key before on the same p.c .

[HAL9000]

Not much help we can give you than other to say double and triple check that you are typing it in correctly. If so, then you must deal with Microsoft.

[bowen]

If it's a legitimate copy - then I think you would be on morally safe ground to track down an alternate activation number on the internet. So long as it's the same version all the codes should be interchangeable.

Not much point contacting microsoft as they wont support OEM products (which I'm guessing you have). Chances are it's outside the supplier warranty too.

atb,

Bowen.

[HAL9000]

NO, you would not be on morally safe ground, or legal ground at all. When a CD key is matched to a CD, while it may work on another, you are not within your rights to use a different one. Using a key found on the internet is as good as piracy as it's a number that someone else would rightfully have in purchasing their product and you shouldn't even be suggesting to someone to do so.

[bowen]

You're clearly worried about the legal implications for your forum so I wont drag this out. I was offering a practical solution to a practical problem. If a piece of legitimately purchased software and it's associated support system fails then providing it was to no-one else's detriment, then I believe someone is entirely within their moral rights (if not legal) to improvise to get it working again without incurring further cost. Given that there is no XP activation system in operation he would not be taking anyone's "rightfully purchased" code.

So long as the software was legitimately purchased I don't believe that this would be tantamount to piracy and I chose my words with care to avoid such implications.

[HAL9000]

So then if a car manufacturer slipped out two sets of identical keys (common in old Fords), and my key worked in your car, I would be morally right in taking your car if mine broke down and the dealer wasn't willing to help me?

This clearly becomes an issue of piracy to which I direct you to read the forum rules, (http://forum.pcmech.com/misc.php?s=s=&action=faq)

You do not know the situation any better than I and for all you know this person may/may not be just looking for a crack to a pirated copy of Windows98. If this is truely a legitimate copy of Windows, it will be up to Ken Mackay to contact either the dealer that he got the computer from, or Microsoft directly.

What you are suggesting is far from morally correct and I don't want to see anymore of it in these forums, you were told once, and repeated yourself, I can't be any more subtle or blunt about it, consider this a warning.

[bowen]

You’re analogy is invalid. If I was suggesting that he swiped someone else’s copy because his didn’t work then it would be appropriate – but that’s why I added the proviso about not being to anyone else's detriment. What I was suggesting would be analogous to borrowing a spare set of key’s to gain access to a car you had bought yourself.

You are quite right in saying that I am in no position to judge his intentions which is precisely why I did not give him a list of links – rather I directed him towards a possible course of remedial action. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt – had his intentions been ignoble I am pretty sure he would have been resourceful enough to run a web search for himself.

I find it endlessly amusing to witness the draconian relish with which forum moderators wield their “power”. You should have been a school teacher.

Anyway, enough.

[HAL9000]

If you don't like the way things are run around here, don't let the door hit you on the way out as I direct you to the little "X" in the upper right corner.

Thread is closed.

Ken Mackay; I apologize for the conduct in this thread, but I have directed you towards the appropriate course of action.