The millions of dollars necessary to feed the army of lawyers and to pay the penalties imposed by the European Union on the giant from Redmond have to be covered in some way, and one of the solution lies within OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) licenses.

As you know, this type of license is distributed by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (a person or company who builds and sells computers) and can only be used on one computer. Up until now, the owner of such a license has been allowed to change a number of components, any of them, without having to purchase a new one.

But as FlexBeta announces, this will no longer be possible and that is because of a slight modification in the license agreement.

Microsoft has redefined the concept of computer and has reduced it to the motherboard, which means that a newly acquired motherboard requires a new license for the operation system.

FlexBeta quotes Microsoft as saying that "an upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a "new personal computer" to which Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required."

This modification also applies to companies that purchased several computers with OEM licenses.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, all the programs aimed at stopping piracy and encouraging users to purchase licensed software are affected by these decisions, which achieve the exact opposite.