14 DAY TRIAL // Article updated on March 5 for clarification and with more details offered by Eric Lundgren. Modifications are highlighted with italic and further information is offered at the end of the article.
Eric Lundgren, the founder of a recycling company whose clients include IBM, Motorola, and Sprint, is facing a 15-month prison sentence and a $50,000 fine after he created a total of 28,000 Dell recovery discs to reduce e-waste.
The 33-year-old entrepreneur is being accused of conspiracy and copyright infringement, and he pleaded guilty to 2 of the 21 counts that were filed against him.
As the Washington Post reports, a federal appeals court has granted an emergency stay of the sentence in order to give Lundgren the chance to explain what exactly happened and how he ended up being accused of piracy.
But according to his statements, the problem wasn’t that he manufactured the Dell recovery discs, but that he used Dell’s and Microsoft’s logos on them.
“Software piracy”
Recovery discs are typically offered by manufacturers to customers who purchase new PCs in order to diagnose and repair operating system issues, but in most of the cases, especially when using old systems, these are lost, pushing many buyers towards the acquisition of new machines. By making these recovery disks, Lundgren believes he could reduce e-waste by helping customer restore the performance of their systems.
“I learned the back end of what happens when things are thrown away,” he says. “I started learning what planned obsolescence was and I realized companies make laptops that only lasted as long as the insurance would last. It infuriated me. That’s not what a healthy society should have.”
Recovery images can often be downloaded from the websites of device manufacturers, but Lundgren admits that he hoped to sell his discs. He says Microsoft doesn’t not sell restore discs, but only licenses with COAs, and his recovery CDs would have only been useful for those who have genuine Windows installed (and who already paid for a license).
Lundgren goes on to explain that Microsoft accused him of software piracy. “Microsoft wants your head on a platter and I’m going to give it to them,” the assistant U.S. attorney on the case, Lothrup Morris, has been cited as telling him.
Lundgren will appear before the 11th Circuit to convince the judge he shouldn’t receive prison time, though Microsoft seems very keen on sending the man to jail for copyright infringement. The software giant hasn’t offered an official statement by the time this article was published.
UPDATE: Lundgren emphasized in an email to us that the recovery images are free on Dell.com and because many people don't know how to burn the ISO to a CD, he decided to build the discs himself. He set a price target of $0.50 for each disc, but none were sold because 100% were confiscated.
Lundgren explained he'll appear before the 11th Circuit to "submit oral arguments as to the value of Dell restore CDs," adding that no evidence was submitted to support the prior valuation assessed by the court, Eric Lundgren was convicted on the valuation of a Microsoft Operating System with License & COA.