Fixers

Meet Eric Lundgren, the E-Waste Activist Microsoft Helped Imprison

Earlier this month, our friend Eric Lundgren was sentenced to prison for duplicating OEM Dell restore CDs. After losing his last appeal, Eric now faces 15 months in federal prison and a hefty $50,000 fine. Eric argues that he was just trying to keep PCs out of the landfill—and since Dell offers up those restore discs to freely download, he thought he was on the right side of the law.

Eric Lundgren lays on a stack of Dell restore discs

Welp, he thought wrong.

So what role does Microsoft have in all of this? And why do they care so much about a restore disc? We took a trip to Eric’s recycling facility to hear his side of the story and find out.