Microsoft Wins Again -- Man Sentenced to 15 Months for "Stealing" Free Software

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180426/00051939718/how-microsoft-convinced-clueless-judges-to-send-man-to-jail-copying-software-it-gives-out-free.shtml

Microsoft offers their Windows recovery software for free. You have to provide a license ID to make it actually work.

A man copied the recovery software and put it on discs and gave it away to PC shops which help people. He didn't steal any license IDs.

Microsoft claims he stole "intellectual property" from them and a Court agreed. The Court may not have understood he didn't steal License IDs.

The man has been sentenced to 15 months of jail. I hope he appeals and the conviction is overturned. Greedy prosecutors and crazy Microsoft should be punished for this huge over-reach.

Microsoft is concerned their software will have malware included in it when it is given to someone else. They prefer that their software move directly from their servers to a user's PC. But, they give away the software for FREE, so it's hard to see how they can claim it was "stolen". Perhaps the Judges on the Court were simply out of touch with the reality of the software world. Their average age (according to the article) is 65.