Tech blogs are fizzing with rage at the 'revelation' that Microsoft small print says a new Windows OEM licence must be purchased if a motherboard is changed or upgraded.

The software behemoth is quoted as saying that the 'heart and soul' of a PC lies therein, and so changing it - other than in the case of a failure - amounts to creating a new machine. Other licence types do not face such restrictions.

Comments about the newly-uncovered atrocity are typically less than complimentary towards Redmond:

“They are trully [sic] evil,” fumes one.

Several others go for the succinct and to-the-point: “F**k Micro$oft.”

For Microsoft's part, it claims this has always been the case. And this document (http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/e/3/4e3eace0-4c6d-4123-9d0c-c80436181742/OSLicQA.doc) seems to corroborate the assertion.

Customers reading their license agreements? Whatever next.®

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