Enthusiast faces 15 months in prison for copying free Dell Restore CDs

American entrepreneur Eric Lundgren is processing electronics. He believes that IT Asset Partners (ITAP), the company founded by him, was the first in the world to introduce mass “hybrid electronics processing”, when old mobile phones and other components are not crushed and not divided into chemical elements, and first fully-made devices are made from the surviving parts. From the same computers they extract all the parts that can still serve, and only then rare-earth and precious metals are extracted from the remaining ones. The ITAP utilizes, in a hybrid way, more than 18.6 thousand tons of e-waste per year under contracts with IBM, Motorola, Sprint and other large companies.

Last year, Eric ran into major trouble. His desire to extend the life of personal computers led to a guilty verdict - he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, writes The Washington Post . The 33-year-old businessman is accused of making 28,000 counterfeit disks with the Windows distribution. Although in reality these are regular recovery disk for the Dell Restore CD, which is distributed as a free image from the Dell website and distributed to every customer.

Microsoft filed a lawsuit claiming $ 700,000 in lost profits from Lundgren’s activities. Instead of buying a new Windows license, people restored the OS to a computer with an existing license for free! Microsoft didn't get a cent.

The court agreed with the prosecutor's office and issued a sentence with a 15-month prison sentence for Eric Lundgren as early as May 2017. In addition to imprisonment, he was awarded three years of supervision after his release and a $ 50,000 fine. A district court in the Southern District of Florida found Lundgren guilty of infringing intellectual rights and conspiring to trade in counterfeit goods - for his participation in copying, importing and selling Microsoft piracy software and Dell. In fact, there was a violation, because the disks of IT Asset Partners were designed almost as well as the original Dell disks, that is, using the trademarks of Microsoft and Dell. If they were issued as "Disks from Eric for System Restore", then everything would be fine.



Despite the plea of ​​guilty, Eric Lundgren immediately announced his desire to challenge the verdict. He considers unfair such a severe punishment for distributing free discs, which are free via the Internet to any buyer of Dell computers. His own crime was that he illegally made copies of these images and distributed them to all buyers of restored Dell computers. Such actions have caused complaints from Microsoft.

The company Dell, which is typical, has not made any claims to the entrepreneur - the lawsuit was received only from Microsoft. Microsoft lawyers presented the case as one example of “software piracy,” which causes the industry billions of dollars in damage per year. For breach of copyright, the court found him guilty on 2 of 21 counts.

According to the accused himself, he offered people a way to circumvent the “planned obsolescence” of technology laid down by manufacturers. He has long noticed that laptops often fail immediately after the warranty period, and this is an abnormal situation.


The maker became famous after collecting The Phoenix electric car with better characteristics than Tesla. This car set a world record for the distance traveled without recharging. The record car is 90% assembled from used components.

Eric Lundgren emphasizes that when buying a computer with Windows preinstalled, no one needs to re-purchase a Windows license. In other words, buying a PC with a licensed Windows allows you to use a computer with a licensed OS for an unlimited time. Microsoft itself earns from selling licenses that cost from $ 300 for a new OS to $ 25 for installing an OS on a restored PC that does not have a licensed OS.

Eric also points out that extending the life of an old technology has a positive effect on the environment, because e-waste is one of the most toxic types of waste.

Finally, Lundgren said that he did not take advantage of his activities, and his company for the most part has been operating for four years without profit or at a loss. ITAP sells recycled equipment at a price that only covers processing and shipping costs. All the work Lundgren does solely for the sake of environmental concern, in order to rid the soil and the oceans of toxic waste. Although he understands that representatives of the "corporate" world may be skeptical of such statements, but it is.

Eric is lucky. The federal appeals court suspended the execution of the emergency procedure - and gave him one more chance to present his arguments in court. The case will be considered in the US Court of Appeals for the 11th district, the date of the hearing has not yet been appointed.