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Sell Your Computers, Keep Paying MS For Licenses
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft Licensing 6.0 requires a company to pay up on software maintenance when the computers that are covered under the license are sold off. Here's the kicker though: MS is no longer obligated to provide maintenance even though the contract is paid up! Read the Infoworld article."
No, you got a discount from the retail cost of ME for the OEM copy that came bundled with your laptop. The OEM license is limited and for that computer and that computer only.
If you pay full retail for a boxed copy, you can use it as long as you want, so long as you only use it on one machine at a time.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
We are under EA (enterprise agreement) version 6 here at my company and this is how it works. Once a year you tell MS how many computers are using what software products. This only happens once per year. Yes, if you cut the number of machines in half you won't see an immediate savings until the next time you give MS your numbers.
However, if you end up doubling your computers you come out ahead: you basically get free use of the software until you update your numbers with MS.
This also means you could get free use of software if you only used it for part of a year. For example, if you give MS numbers each January, you could install extra stuff in February, remove it in December, and MS would never have to know you used it.
The EA does end up saving money if you were going to upgrade all the time anyway, or perhaps only skip one version. If you tend to skip two or more versions, the EA would most likely cost you more money.
Not that anyone who isn't actually buying or selling divisions of companies cares, but here are a couple of other things you might think about to make sure you're protected:
- make sure each legal entity is the licensor of its own licenses (ie. Bluelight should have been the licensor, not Kmart); then when the division is sold or divested, it is transparent to Microsoft (you may lose some volume discount here, of course);
- if you haven't done the above or are selling assets instead of equity, set up a permanent lease of the computers to the buyer instead of transferring ownership; make sure payments are structured (probably through some sort of escrow account or trust) so the lease is a lease and not a sale;
- in a bankruptcy, ask the judge to tell Microsoft to stuff it, which he may well have the power to do, and if he's a Windows user will certainly *want* to do.
Does it need to be said? IANAL.
On a related note, why doesn't some unemployed entrepreneur out there start a company that buys unused MS licenses (for Windows and Office, say) from companies that are downsizing or going out of business, then resell them to large companies that are being audited by MS? I know a few that would pay decent money just to not have to sort out the mess that is their file cabinet full of licenses, even if they do lose SA.
Milo
This statement is incorrect. Compare the EULA before and after installing SP2 (or whatever the latest big service pack was). You'll notice a BIG change in the section labeled "Transfer".
Originally, my retail box of Windows XP Pro stated I was explicitly allows to transfer XP from one machine to another, provided I deleted the first copy.
After the upgrade, the EULA stated "The SOFTWARE is licensed with the HARDWARE as a single integrated product and may only be used with the HARDWARE." It goes on to state that if I sell the hardware, XP has to go with it.
This is from a full retail copy, folks. Take a look at your own EULA, \windows\system32\eula.txt. Also note that I never saw any indication this EULA was being updated in the SP2 installation process (and I read the presented update EULA there in full).
Uh, you must not be in AG. As a sysadmin for an AG brigade, I can tell you that I have alot of XP computers under my control. Not my choice mind you, but the Army DOES use XP. XP does your 201 file, your life insurance, and your orders. They may not be in a tactical enviroment, but XP is alive and well in the Army.
PFC Gruhn
G1/AG Automation, the Dilbert Guy
I Corps, Fort Lewis, WA
"Serve and Sustain"
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
The other point is that contracts usually get judged solely on what's contained inside of them, unless there's fraud, illegality, mistake, mutual recission, and a few other exceptions. So if you want to know what you've gotten yourself into, then RTFC. There are no state or federal laws (with a few small exceptions) that force you to agree to certain things, so it's all in the contract. And you don't need a law degree to understand them, either. Most of the legalese is shorthand so that broad concepts don't have to take pages and pages of explanation. Get a law dictionary (don't use Black's if you're a novice- it explains legal terms with legal terms, get one that uses layperson definitions) and go through it yourself. It might not be pleasant, but you'll understand more than you think you will.
IAAL