Selling OEM Windows copies - you can do it in Europe

Our recent piece on Microsoft's interesting claim (now withdrawn) that it's a legal requirement that a preinstalled operating system system remain with a machine for the life of the machine prompted a contribution on a related matter from Andrew Katz of Moorcrofts Corporate Law, who argues in some detail that under European law Microsoft has no right to stop you selling on any copy of Windows, including preinstalled versions.

This is not what the licence agreement says, of course, and it's probably not what Microsoft's lawyers are going to say when you meet them in court. So if anybody wants to be a test case, please note Andrew's disclaimer towards the end of this piece.

Now over to Andrew