Legal or Scam??

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Guest

Lately I've been getting lots of spam, selling cheap software. The website was oemsoftwarehouse.com. They supposedly were selling oem software of Borland's Delphi and Microsoft's Visual Studio. They said it was only $60 for Delphi 7 Enterprise, but Borland sells it for over $2,500 USD! I don't know the cost of Visual Studo, but the website was offering it for $130 USD. Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Is there such a thing as an OEM version of Visual studio? If I order this, will I be buying pirated software? Will I be breaking any laws using this software?

Thanks!

Debbie
 
A good place to check on the "street price" of software is to go to CDW.com.
As one of the largest distributors of software in the US, you can get the
"street retail" price of almost any software product. If you can find the
product for 10% less than CDW, buy it. If it's more than about 15% less
than CDW, then it is probably a pirate disk.

There's a couple of problems with pirate software.
1) It is often not a full version, or not the latest version. Some pirate
software is "demo" or "beta" version with a crack. If you tried to develop
software with a cracked beta of Visual Studio, you won't be happy with the
results.

2) Giving money to pirates encourages piracy. I won't say more. You appear
concerned about it, which means you are one of the good people. For that, I
thank you.

--- Nick


Debbie Erickson said:
Lately I've been getting lots of spam, selling cheap software. The
Click to expand...
website was oemsoftwarehouse.com. They supposedly were selling oem software
of Borland's Delphi and Microsoft's Visual Studio. They said it was only
$60 for Delphi 7 Enterprise, but Borland sells it for over $2,500 USD! I
don't know the cost of Visual Studo, but the website was offering it for
$130 USD. Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Is there
such a thing as an OEM version of Visual studio? If I order this, will I be
buying pirated software? Will I be breaking any laws using this software?
 
Debbie Erickson said:
Lately I've been getting lots of spam, selling cheap software. The
Click to expand...
website was oemsoftwarehouse.com. They supposedly were selling oem software
of Borland's Delphi and Microsoft's Visual Studio. They said it was only
$60 for Delphi 7 Enterprise, but Borland sells it for over $2,500 USD! I
don't know the cost of Visual Studo, but the website was offering it for
$130 USD. Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Is there
such a thing as an OEM version of Visual studio? If I order this, will I be
buying pirated software? Will I be breaking any laws using this software?
Thanks!

Debbie
Click to expand...

I'm getting spammed by these people at the college where I teach. The prices
are way too low to be legit. IIRC, the last can of spam included a deal for
Win XP Sp1a *and* Office 2003 for $60.
OEM software is normally distributed by hardware manufacturers with their
hardware. The fact that these people use the term OEM and don't have any
caveat like "must be purchased with xxx hardware" is another danger signal.
So, we have suspiciously low prices from a spammer (another sign of a
sleaseball, IMHO), and I conclude that
they are in the same category as those offering a "accredited university
diploma with no classes or tests" for a fee.
FWIW, I sent one of the emails to Microsoft, as I suspect their legal
division may be interested ;-)

My two cents worth.
 
Peter van der Goes said:
website was oemsoftwarehouse.com. They supposedly were selling oem software
of Borland's Delphi and Microsoft's Visual Studio. They said it was only
$60 for Delphi 7 Enterprise, but Borland sells it for over $2,500 USD! I
don't know the cost of Visual Studo, but the website was offering it for
$130 USD. Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Is there
such a thing as an OEM version of Visual studio? If I order this, will I be
buying pirated software? Will I be breaking any laws using this software?

I'm getting spammed by these people at the college where I teach. The prices
are way too low to be legit. IIRC, the last can of spam included a deal for
Win XP Sp1a *and* Office 2003 for $60.
OEM software is normally distributed by hardware manufacturers with their
hardware. The fact that these people use the term OEM and don't have any
caveat like "must be purchased with xxx hardware" is another danger signal.
So, we have suspiciously low prices from a spammer (another sign of a
sleaseball, IMHO), and I conclude that
they are in the same category as those offering a "accredited university
diploma with no classes or tests" for a fee.
FWIW, I sent one of the emails to Microsoft, as I suspect their legal
division may be interested ;-)

My two cents worth.
Click to expand...

It depends, there is a package for higher education students only called
OOPS (well at least in belgium there is : http://www.ma3d.com (it's in dutch
only I think)) which offers :
-Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
-Microsoft Windows XP Professional Upgrade
-Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
-Microsoft Encarta 2003
for only 50 euros (60 USD)

It's completly legal but you have to download the software from the site and
they mail you a set of serials for the different programs. I have such a
subscription and it works very well. All my products were registered online
with ms without any problems. Maybe they were offering you that.

Yves
 
phoenix said:
It depends, there is a package for higher education students only called
OOPS (well at least in belgium there is : http://www.ma3d.com (it's in dutch
only I think)) which offers :
-Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
-Microsoft Windows XP Professional Upgrade
-Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
-Microsoft Encarta 2003
for only 50 euros (60 USD)

It's completly legal but you have to download the software from the site and
they mail you a set of serials for the different programs. I have such a
subscription and it works very well. All my products were registered online
with ms without any problems. Maybe they were offering you that.

Yves
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree that Microsoft makes *very* generous offers to legitimate
students and faculty. We are members of MSDNAA, and our students pay nothing
for numerous Microsoft products. The spammers mentioned by the OP, however,
make no mention of eligibility restrictions, nor do they require any
credentials from those foolish enough to place orders. It *is* possible I'm
wrong about this bunch, but you know the old saying: :If it quacks like a
duck, waddles like a duck..."
 
I don't know about MS, but AFAIK Borland doesn't have OEM versions of
their software.

LP,
Dejan
 
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