Far from being unusable, even without a valid license key, windows will work for 30 days IIRC. With some versions you can 're arm' the license for a total of 90

Far from being unusable, even without a valid license key, windows will work for 30 days IIRC. With some versions you can 're arm' the license for a total of 90 days of free use. In any case, the license you're talking about is the license to _use_ the software, distribution is a separate thing. Nobody except Microsoft is allowed to distribute the software. Just because they offer a download, that doesn't mean you can download and re-distribute it without their permission. Certain copyright licenses also block you from redistribution unless you provide the source code. Even so, companies don't bother you with such trivial things as re-uploading an ISO that you downloaded off their website since its usually a waste of their time/money. I'm not sure why MS is even bothering with this case TBH.