"The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled Microsoft cannot block customers from reselling perpetual software licenses, marking the end of a years-long debate."
Microsoft lost its license reselling case
Given that Microsoft’s distribution and reproduction rights do not prevent the resale of portions of bulk licenses, the Tribunal found the resale lawful.
ValueLicensing also notes that, from about 2011, Microsoft shifted perpetual license customers to its Microsoft 365 subscription, requiring customers (like ValueLicensing) to surrender or retain perpetual licenses they no longer required.
Argument number two relates to Office and Windows including copyrighted non-program elements (like icons, fonts, clip art, and resource/help files). The Tribunal found that buyers purchase Microsoft’s software as computer programs, not as collections of artistic work, and therefore Microsoft lost this battle too.
The Tribunal “unanimous[ly]” ruled against Microsoft on both issues.
Read the full article here.