Used Microsoft Licenses For Sale

An anonymous reader writes "A secondhand dealer in Britain has been given the green light by Microsoft to resell software licenses from insolvent or downsizing companies, ZDNet is reporting. The reseller, Disclic, is legally allowed to sell the licenses at a discounted rate of between 20 percent to 50 percent, much lower than Microsoft's resellers. Partners of the software giant have expressed unhappiness over the issue as it undercuts their business. "I've never heard the like, and I am stunned," said Gordon Davies, the commercial director of Microsoft reseller Compusys. "This is clearly going to take away revenue from the channel and from Microsoft," he said."

Comments

Perfect World

[E Galois]

In a perfect world, isn't this how it should work anyway?

What's interesting is M$ is consenting to it???

hey, you know

[Anonymous Coward]

Car makers have to compete against a huge used market and still survive (well except maybe GM).

Re:hey, you know

[returnoftheyeti]

A used car has a depriciation value. A used car has an unknown history, phyisical wear and tear, and could fail to function hours after you have purchased it.

A software license has no phyisical wear and tear. It dosnt exist as a material object. All it is is a piece of paper that has to be renewed (software assurance), for a cost, in the future. The value of the license is only in how long it is good for. A used software license that is 1 year old at 10% discount is better than a used 3 day old used Lexus at a 50% discount

Great idea

[Barkley44]

This is a great idea, if everyone can make some money and in turn people save money form not having to buy full priced ones. Of course the resellers are worried, but there will be a limited supply, eventually companies will have to go back to them. And resellers will have the newest versions, which used licenses typically won't be for.

This is old news

[Adelle]

Software has been (legitimately and legally) bought and sold on e-bay for some time now. Does anyone think that a few more Windows 2000 users is bad news for Microsoft or its resellers? It's just another way of increasing the potential market for the next version (not counting those of us that know that newer!=better).

Very specific situation.

[pavon]

That story is cool, but it does not apply to all cases of predatory pricing. It only worked because the cartel was charging different prices in different countries. In this age, the only situations where that happens it is backed by law preventing someone like Dow from doing what he did.

When a large company prices below the market value (be it in the world market or a walled off local market), and they have deep enough pockets to take a small loss, then there is nothing that the small companies can do about it. They can't buy up the product and resell it, as it will still be more expensive than the original. Predatory pricing does exist, and a single anicdote does not dispel that fact.