14 DAY TRIAL // The wide availability of Windows 7, be it from official Microsoft channels (the Beta Build 7000), or through various illegal third-parties (the pre-Release Candidate builds), has managed to encourage schemes to turn over a profit from the bits offered for free by the Redmond company. The latest strategy to turn over a pretty penny involves selling the leaked copy of Windows 7 Build 7068 on eBay. Available only deep under, a DVD with Windows 7 Build 7068, either the 32-bit or the 64-bit flavor, costs just AU $4.45, plus AU $1.50 for postage.
The seller is trying to play the card of “providing a service” stating that “This is solely for the people who do not have the time or the internet capacity to download the iso file that Microsoft provides. I am getting a dollar or two for burning this on DVD for you guys as a service. Please get this right, everyone. You are not paying for the software, but for the blank DVD and my burning time, the cardboard envelope + postage to you. I am doing this, as I see lots of people are looking for a service like this. People want to test out the Windows 7 before the full release, but whos [sic] going to pay $$$ if you don't know how it performs in your system?? So I'll burn it for you. As simple as that.” (via Gizmodo)
In fact, it is not as simple as that. Microsoft does not allow any third parties to distribute its software products, irrespective of any “good intentions” involved in such scenarios. There are no exceptions to this rule, and certainly none involving the distribution of a pre-release version of Windows 7. Microsoft is offering testing variants of Windows 7 for free in exchange for the feedback generated by end users when testing the operating system. However, like any other pre-release Microsoft software product, the bits of development milestones of the next iteration of Windows are time bombed. Windows 7 Build 7068 will expire in 2010.
This is, of course, not a singular example. Back at the start of March 2009, pirated copies of Windows 7 Beta were being commercialized in the Philippines for under $1.4, and even as low as $1.
