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Microsoft Restores Transfer Rights To Office 2013
New submitter gewalker writes "Bowing to significant unfriendly customer feedback regarding its new 'no transfer' license for Office 2013, Microsoft has reconsidered and will now allow Office 2013 licenses to be transferred between computers. Actual license language will not be reflected for a few months for shipped products, but Microsoft will allow transfer of license effective immediately. Calls to customer support will be necessary, as the activation servers won't be updated for a few months."
This is a step in the right direction. Now if only unfriendly customer feedback would get them to retract Metro we'll really be in business.
Seriously though, how obvious was it that there would be a huge negative reaction to the change of licensing terms for Office? As usually, the more MBA's you get involved in things the dumber the collective IQ of an organization gets.
Purchased Office 2013 through HUP and can't stand it. Contact MS about downgrade rights to 2010, and can't (legally). What a joke.
Trying to chip away customers rights at every chance and backing away only when the blowback gets unbearable, just to wait for another chance.
I think this is a good decision on the part of microsoft. I for one buy a license to use in a virtual machine, and if the licensing stood as it was originally described, once I cut my virtual machine loose I wouldn't be able to install it elsewhere. Still kinda a pain to re-activate it elsewhere, but better than nothing!
Maybe more rational thinking is returning to the Big M.
Now, if only they would rethink the Windows 8 mess on desktops.
And you think this is limited to tech companies?
just say goodbye.
But they just might be doing so. Unlike a "policy" they really can't retract an entire product like that; but early scuttle of this "Windows Blue" thing DOES seem to have some UI fixes in it. Depending if MS can hold to real timetables or not these days, it is "sorta scheduled" for maybe late this summer.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I bought some tires for my car and they came with locking lug-nuts. The lug-nuts are weird in that, once fastened, nobody can undo them except for the tire manufacturer. If I want to use the tires on another car, I have to call them and they will allow me to move the tires to a different vehicle.
And I would choose to buy these tires why?
EULA SP3 is in development.
A few MONTHS for a simple business-rule change?
Now you've used up your post license for this thread. To post again, you will have to buy another.
Your political party doesn't care about your rights and only represents corporate interests.
We are all forever in your debt! Where would the computing world be without Microsoft's amazing software and generous licensing terms?
I applaud the change itself, but stretching the timeframe to actually having a good system implemented will do Microsoft no good. I hope they're okay with rampant piracy, since it will be more convenient to just pirate a new copy of Office 2013, rather than fumble around with Microsoft's customer support for a day while they double check my name, phone number, social security number, hair color, and genome sequence to make absolutely sure I really am the same one who bought that license in the first place.
I was going to buy Office 2013 for my current machine, planning to move it to a new one soon. Then the no move dictate came out. So, I didnâ(TM)t buy 2013. Now, I may upgrade. Microsoft just screwing with their users again.
They tried to make MS office 2013 a rental rather than a purchase - and by doing that they make an office365 rental a psychologically easier next step for ordinary users.
If they had gotten away with it then all they would have done is driven people to libreoffice (and by people I mean average people, not corporate or SOHOs) - as an average person is not interested in home computing becoming a rental experience. MS need to accept that, even if they donâ(TM)t like it.
There is still the unresolved question of what happens if MS disappears in 15 years time and I want to install a copy of office 2013 that I bought. Does whoever buys the assets of MS just say "tough, get lost and buy something new", do they say "ok we will activate it, but pay us a $20 handling fee", or do they say "sure, no problem".
Fark you, Jevon.
re: the generated furor, is a low-budget advertising campaign.
.
Sort of like starting "New Coca Cola", getting the furor as publicity, and pretending to revert back to the old fornula with "Classic Coca Cola" and looking like they're the good guys for listening to their buying publick: meanwhile, they secretly substituted corn syrup for the cane sugar originally used as the sweetener. A little sleight of hand here, a little misdirection there, and the guillible ol' public thinks "hey, this big ol' corporations looking out for US!".
.
On the other hand, if there'd been no outcry, hey, new onerous terms accepted, and cash flow increased. Cha-cha-ching!
Who would have guessed?
So now I might take advantage of the 2013 upgrade offer that came with my Office 2012 Student and Home pack I bought recently.
This makes me hate MS less. Still ticked off about when they bought Bungie though.
It's like how Colin Chapman designed car frames: keep taking out pieces until it collapses under its own weight. Put the last piece back in. Do something outrageous and walk it back just one step, getting almost all of what you wanted.
Simple Business Sociopathy 101.
If only there was an OSS alternative to Office 2013 that didn't require paying anything and going through a shitty customer experience while holding for hours with MS Support...
No. Microsoft doesn't give a rat's ass about negative customer feedback. The only reason they changed their tune on license transfer of Office 2013, is that the EU has fined them over half a billion, reminding MS that someone is watching. Someone with a big, scary stick.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
That still doesn't make Office a good buy. I'd still rather download Libre Office and get going now for free.
...can someone explain that post using a computer analogy?
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Thank you, LibreOffice, for keeping Microsoft from playing sleazy games.
Usual none story by illiterate tech 'journalists' about how Microsoft was going to magically do away with consumer rights enshrined in law.
Get this through your thick heads, you clods!
The First Sale doctrine CANNOT be set aside because the product is 'software', or comes with ANY wording of restriction of said rights in a EULA.
If a piece of software is sold OUTRIGHT, with no set date in the future when it may no longer be used, and NO ongoing payments that must be made in order to keep using the software, it is a PRODUCT not a SERVICE and will always be covered by First Sale doctrine.
The same applies to games that will be sold for the new consoles from MS and Sony, which is why the used-game market WILL continue. It doesn't matter what MS wants or says. It doesn't matter what Sony wants or says. It doesn't matter what every tech journalist is paid to dribble on their various co-opted web sites. If you buy the game outright, you may sell it on later.
Presence of micro-transactions does NOT change this. Presence of DLC does NOT change this. Use of services like 'Steam' or 'Origin' does NOT change this. Any wording in the EULA does NOT change this.
The strongest defender of the First Sale doctrine is NOT the USA, but the EU. The EU will 'spank' any company that attempts to deny users their consumer rights. Microsoft doesn't even try. Apple does, gets spanked, and loses every single time. Most recently when Apple stated they would NOT honour EU warranty law. One spanking later, and Apple does EXACTLY as it is told.
Thank god that bad as everything else has become, consumer rights are not treated as a political football.
PS make a note of every pundit that told you MS could deny you your rights, and never bother reading their dribble again. Do the same for the morons telling you that MS and Sony will prevent second hand game sales on the new consoles. Tech journalists this uninformed deserve no audience.
I have an Asus Zenbook and I love it. I also have an EeePC netbook and a Transformer tablet. I love them all.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
One would have hoped that a large company like Microsoft would do a little bit of research before they foisted their decisions on their customer base. This is clear evidence that they don't. Windows 8 is another example, where they actually turn a deaf ear to the results of the research that they do conduct.
I ain't gonna buy that bloated pig anyway!!
Now, if only they would rethink the Windows 8 mess on desktops.
If you think the Win 8 interface is horrible, just wait until you try Server 2012. Metro. On a server. For reelz.
Why? WHY???????
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
This is a step in the right direction. Now if only unfriendly customer feedback would get them to retract Metro we'll really be in business.
Seriously though, how obvious was it that there would be a huge negative reaction to the change of licensing terms for Office? As usually, the more MBA's you get involved in things the dumber the collective IQ of an organization gets.
Wait to you see the blinding white of of Office 2013! May god have mercy on your soul if you have a flickering flourscent light 60 mhz CRT you stare at all day with it.
Other than that it has some nice improvements under the hood. Cloud integration, an app store with app addons like Firefox has with its browses, GPU acceleration, detailed collaborative editing, and Metro support. I have the dark theme which is a medium gray (it is void of all colors) and I have been running it for almost a month.
It is cool because you can look at a paragraph in Word and see -edited by Jamie 1/29/2013 tag. The document changes work like Im conversations. But the gui,,, just makes me want to go back to Office 2010 similiar to Windows 8. Shame, but potential for something new as addons for cloud services will be the next major reason to upgrade office this decade. Perhaps Office 2015 with Windows 9 will be mature and nice again?
http://saveie6.com/
Libre Office!
Or Open Office.
Maybe I am a pretty basic needs user, but I don't see anything MS Office has that I can't get in Libre Office... except abuse.
That's just sad.
Did Steve Ballmer have a stroke?
Nobody uses CRT displays any more, unless maybe you're fucking destitute and had to scrounge around on garbage day for your twenty year old PC in which case, you wouldn't be able to run Office 2013 anyhow-hell, you wouldn't be able to run an OS that was capable of handling Office 2013.
flickering flourscent light 60 mhz CRT
That's some damn fast phosphor.
If you think the Win 8 interface is horrible, just wait until you try Server 2012. Metro. On a server. For reelz.
Why? WHY???????
Because someone in the Windows Server area either said, "y'know what the future is? touch screens...on a server!", "We want to end the concept of companies hosting their own servers and spur along 'cloud migration' REALLY bad", or "Server 2008R2 is an excellent platform that will serve our customers well for years to come". The one guy who stood up in that meeting and said, "y'know...most people who administer servers do so over Remote Desktop or Powershell" was promptly killed by a flying chair.
Too many companies just refuse to "get it". Fifteen, heck even 10, years ago you could screw with customers, they'd write in, and that would be the end of it. You may or may not do anything different. But this is a vastly different world now and companies just don't understand that! It use to be that 1 happy customer might tell 3 friends. An unhappy customer would tell 10 friends. But with the internet and social media, 1 happy customer can tell 20 friends, but 1 hacked off customer can tell thousands in an instant! It was one thing if you got 10 letters back in the day, waaay different if you hear thousands of customers ripping on you in hours. And tech companies seem oblivious to the fact that when it comes to technology in today's world, customers often have free or less expensive alternatives that are, fairly often, pretty equal in quality or features.
God bless Linus, Stallman, the GPL, and many others in the free software community.
and even the windows fanboys, Stallman haters and others in the drm camps should bless them as well, for without them, the drm camp would have been bleeding you far more than they have for the last 10+ years.
Same as AMD providing some competition with the Athlon years ago. AMD faded, and we get stalled frequency wars. CPU performance advancement has fallen by the wayside after AMD dropped out of the races. Intel is still speeding up (or actually adding cores in lieu of increasing frequencies), but not at the same rate or "bang for the buck" as when they directly competed with AMD, whether enthusiast lines or server lines.
We all benefited there as well.
If I am messed up, my damage is limited and I am personally liable for the fallout.
If a company is messed up because the people in it are messed up, the damage is extensive and they are not liable for the fallout.