Loose rivets,
For the "horses' mouth" version, see here....
How to Tell ? Hardware
Namely
"A properly licensed PC should include either a Genuine Microsoft Label or a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) Label. See the following examples of labels to look for."
So it does look like the larger manufacturers get to take advantage of Activation 3.0.
Still leaves you in need of obtaining the correct version of Windows 8 I guess....
Maybe I misunderstood what you were asking, but it is a day of festivities and I've been doing the cooking !