win95/98/ME and printers. An ethics issue comparable to DRM servers or not?

[Luke -Jr]

On Wednesday 30 July 2008, Christofer C. Bell wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Luke -Jr <luke at dashjr.org> wrote:
> > Furthermore, the argument made by Chris does not hold water simply
> > because the
> > commercial developers have been paid to provide something, and anything
> > paid
> > for should come with some kind of warranty, not to mention ownership (or
> > an equivalent license) of what has actually be paid for. Freeware, on the
> > other
> > hand, logically comes with absolutely no warranty.
>
> Yeah, but Luke, we're talking about stuff that's a decade old.  Warranties
> *do* end.  And as Billy Crook points out in a later message, "any
> responsible printer owner has had ten years not to download copy of the
> drivers."
> Am I the only person who archives drivers until the hardware is gone?

What happens if someone wants to give their old HP printer to a charity still 
running Windows 98? Even if that someone had a copy of the 98 drivers, HP has 
said including those would be illegal...