OEM vs Retail Licences question.

[ChrisM]

Hi Guys,

Ok, probably not exactly the right group for this question, but this is one
of the most active and knowledgable group I visit, so hopefully someone will
at least be able to tell me the right place to go and ask about this...

My company(well, the one I work for) has about 10-15 computers running
(mostly) Windows2000 and Word(/Office)2000. We are considering upgrading to
XP and Office2007.
Looking at licence pricing, it looks like it's going to cost us several
thousand pounds to do this!
Now, there are companies on the internet that sell OEM versions of XP and
Office2007 at considerably less than the retail price. My questions are:

1) Is this legal, ie is there any chance of having the licence police coming
a-knocking...?
2) If it IS legal, are there any catches or potential problems with going
this route? I've always been a believer in the saying "If something looks
too good to be true, then it probably isn't", and that appears to be the
case with buying OEM licences.

(My understanding is that it's based on the fact that although OEM licences
can only be sold to 'system builders' the definition of 'System Builder' is
fairly fuzzy, and these companies exploit that loophole.)

Like I said, if you can't give me a definitive answer here, just point me to
a better place to ask.

Thanks!

 

[ChrisM]

Hi Guys,

Ok, probably not exactly the right group for this question, but this
is one of the most active and knowledgable group I visit, so
hopefully someone will at least be able to tell me the right place to
go and ask about this...
My company(well, the one I work for) has about 10-15 computers running
(mostly) Windows2000 and Word(/Office)2000. We are considering
upgrading to XP and Office2007.
Looking at licence pricing, it looks like it's going to cost us
several thousand pounds to do this!
Now, there are companies on the internet that sell OEM versions of XP
and Office2007 at considerably less than the retail price. My
questions are:
1) Is this legal, ie is there any chance of having the licence police
coming a-knocking...?
2) If it IS legal, are there any catches or potential problems with
going this route? I've always been a believer in the saying "If
something looks too good to be true, then it probably isn't", and
that appears to be the case with buying OEM licences.

(My understanding is that it's based on the fact that although OEM
licences can only be sold to 'system builders' the definition of
'System Builder' is fairly fuzzy, and these companies exploit that
loophole.)
Like I said, if you can't give me a definitive answer here, just
point me to a better place to ask.

Thanks!