Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 Lifetime License (PC or Mac Download) Expired

I prefer paying annually for Office 365 as the 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage alone is worth it since DropBox refuses to lower their prices or offer a similarly featured tier.

Here's my guess about the validity of this license:

There was a law in Europe that said licenses could be re-sold. It was mostly to do with buying/selling used computers I think, and selling off software was seen as just another component. This is why places like StackSocial can legally (for the moment) continue selling these licenses. They may have originated from large organizations (corporate, government, etc.) in Europe. So perhaps, under European law, one can purchase these licenses.

So, what does Microsoft do? If they go after an individual outside of Europe for using these licences, that individual merely claims that it was legal in the place the bought it (Europe), and if they have to, say that they have now moved to the U.S. It's a difficult situation to try to mass reject all these re-sold licenses en mass, as they may indeed be legal in situations. Could they reject all license attempts outside Europe? What if you need to reinstall your license while travelling, or temporarily liiving/working outside of Europe. Perhaps Microsoft even thinks that, if push comes to shove, a similar law might be established in the U.S. anyway.

But the flaw in that assumption is, why couldn't Microsoft have argued that they must be sold-off as-is, in their current license form (volume)? Maybe buyers of the used equipment argued that they shouldn't have to sell the used hardware in the same volume as the software (all in one sale). Therefore, they shouldn't have to sell off a 100-user bulk license arrangement as one product.

There's my guess. Are they legal, well, sort-of, in certain situations, but that's really difficult for Microsoft to determine and force. So, it's tolerated - for now. If major organizations start doing this and Microsoft starts losing significant Office revenue, then we'll eventually see a court case. Buying this license comes with the future risks of deactivation or future limitations. No guarantees here at all. Practically speaking, who's going to complain if they get 2-3 years out of these licenses and they're only used in a home (non-business) environment. If a larger business starts buying them, they individually risk a lawsuit from Microsoft, and Microsoft has a large legal department and deep pockets.

Summary: Not quite fully legal perhaps outside of Europe (or elsewhere), but situations may exist that they are indeed legal. Not easily provable that they are illegal. So, for now, StackSocial keeps selling them without legal objection from Microsoft.

Is there a way to tell who is the licensee

That's an excellent question. I'd say 'no'. It's also possible that bulk licenses are purchased by a company and some never used. Maybe these are them too, in which case there might be no assigned company - unless MS bulk-assigned.

That's an interesting question that no one asked before. One would think there'd be a license verification site rather than just having to test it with an install.

Trying to figure out if this is actually better than those $8 deals on fleabay, or just a $39.99 version of the $8 deal. Reading through their comments and review is hard to tell.

Possibly not grey market. It looks like Popsci is just linking to stack exchange anyway.

https://www.popsci.com/sponsored-...ense-sale/ [popsci.com]

Popular Science Shop:
https://shop.popsci.com/sales/mic...&scsonar=1 [popsci.com]

Used the Popsci link. Purchased, got the code right on the web page and it activated right away in MS account. No need for further emails, or anything.

You do the ebay licenses and you have to re-activate through the phone since they have been used 100x already. It works, but is a PITA.I

Trying to figure out if this is actually better than those $8 deals on fleabay, or just a $39.99 version of the $8 deal. Reading through their comments and review is hard to tell.

Possibly not grey market. It looks like Popsci is just linking to stack exchange anyway.

https://www.popsci.com/sponsored-...ense-sale/ [popsci.com]

Popular Science Shop:
https://shop.popsci.com/sales/mic...&scsonar=1 [popsci.com]

Used the Popsci link. Purchased, got the code right on the web page and it activated right away in MS account. No need for further emails, or anything.

You do the ebay licenses and you have to re-activate through the phone since they have been used 100x already. It works, but is a PITA.

Yeah, I had to wait as well when I ordered a couple of days ago. They sent me an invalid code and I am waiting on a new code.

Thanks for the update. I'm going to give it a few hours.

Any updates?