[qb45]

> Without a licence, you have no right at all.

On what grounds do you have no right to use a copy of software you bought without obtaining an additional license from the vendor?

As for copying it's copyright, obviously, but I never understood what's the matter with merely using. IANAL but AFAIK in some EU countries it is recognized that there is no legal basis for EULAs and they officially are void, unless signed as a contract prior to the purchase, of course.

[zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC]

> unless signed as a contract prior to the purchase, of course.

Not quite. There is no need to sign anything, what matters is if the EULA was included in the sale contract (so, the buyer was aware that the willingness of the seller to sell you the product depended on the buyer accepting those additional terms as part of the contract). On the other hand, if you do indeed sign an additional contract afterwards on your free will that limits your rights, that might very well be enforcable. But the point is that there is no legal necessity to sign such a contract in order to use the software that you have bought.

[qb45]

> There is no need to sign anything, what matters is if the EULA was included in the sale contract (so, the buyer was aware that the willingness of the seller to sell you the product depended on the buyer accepting those additional terms as part of the contract).

Yes, it doesn't have to be literally signed, but it needs to be an agreement made at the time of purchase. If I agree to buy Windows under the condition that I won't use it for the development of nuclear weapons, so be it.

But it's still not clear why I would need Microsoft's license just to use a copy of Windows I have already bought, sometimes even as part of a computer, which is what parent seemed to claim.

[bluGill]

> On what grounds do you have no right to use a copy of software you bought without obtaining an additional license from the vendor

To use software you probably have to install it on your computer - this makes a copy of the software. Then when you run it you make another copy into your computer's memory, and additional copies in the the CPU's cache.

I don't agree with the above argument (I think fair use covers it), but I have heard it. It isn't hard to read the letter of the law and conclude the above is the correct interpretation. (you might need to see some money...)

I honestly do not know how to fix the letter of the law. There are too many special cases. If I have two computers can I install it on both? Can I install it for my family to use? When my computer fails can I install it on the replacement? The above are trick questions: I deliberately asked them to invite answers that imply I can install one copy of software on as many servers as I want for as many users as I want - this seems wrong.