How to identify MSDN licenses

[time]

Has anyone worked out a way to identify installed M$ products that came from an MSDN license?

A tech has billed my client for Win 7 Ultimate and Office 2010 Pro, but I don't believe they're OEM or retail. Particularly Office, which is 20% below the best result in a price search engine.

I do have other grounds for suspicion.

What are the ramifications? My understanding is that the installed products won't expire, although Microsoft hinted that they may start to be identified as non-genuine - is this true? What I do expect is that if they need to be reinstalled for any reason, the activations won't fly.

 

[Chewy509]

Do you have the COA's associated with the keys. It's normally printed on the license sticker what they are? Unless if they're the big orange ones, which are either MSDN or Volume License.

If not, get a copy of the keys and call MS licensing to confirm what version they are.

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/licensing/contact.mspx

As for ramifications (if they are not OEM/retail/VLK), your client is using the software illegally and may be taken to court by MS to seek damages. (Even if they purchased the software in good faith).

 

[time]

I don't have anything physical, including the PC, which is currently in China.

I thought I implied in my post that I already called Microsoft.

In any case, I realized that I had a copy of the Office key in an email, so I called M$ back and verified that it is in fact an MSDN license.

I don't care about legal action over licensing for just one PC. M$ has already been paid for an Office license, which the user managed to lose the certificate for. When the HDD was replaced, there was no longer any way to prove that they had paid for it.

I do care about practical ramifications, however, such as not being able to reinstall the software if it ever becomes necessary.

It's all most unfortunate because the guy was reasonably competent, which I've found to be rare. How much is an MSDN subscription pA these days anyway? I don't mind compensating him for using an activation to solve an urgent problem temporarily, but obviously we'll still have to buy a real copy.

 

[Mercutio]

The least expensive sub that allows access to Windows and Office is US$200. You get 10 keys for each product, with some international editions counting as different products (Windows 7 N and K have different keys for each edition). Each key can be re-activated a certain number of times: Vista seems to go 10 times per key, Office 2010 seems to be about 12 (more than 10, anyway) and Windows 7 is a whopping 20 installs per code.

An individual key isn't worth all that much, in other words.

 

[Mercutio]

Also, given that the system is in China, give the guy some credit for using any kind of legitimate license. He probably could have obtained a pirated copy of a fake license even more easily than one that really can pass Activation and Genuine Validation.

 

[mubs]

On the Technet sub, I believe they dropped the keys to 2 from 10. I was thinking of getting one.

 

[Mercutio]

On the Technet sub, I believe they dropped the keys to 2 from 10. I was thinking of getting one.

I just bought some back in August and got 10. I redeem all the keys and save the list first thing.

 

[ddrueding]

I do the same. And when it comes time to renew, I get another one.

 

[mubs]

Thanks. I'm partly correct, though:

Some TechNet Standard License Keys Drop from 10 to 2; Pro Drops from 10 to 5

Still should be enough for me.