Retail version of Office 2013 can't be transferred

Capt'n Midnight

Looks like office 2013 can't be moved if you get a new computer or if it dies.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/20/office_2013_license_no_transfers/

You may not transfer the software to another computer or user. You may transfer the software directly to a third party only as installed on the licensed computer, with the Certificate of Authenticity label and this agreement. Before the transfer, that party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use of the software. You may not retain any copies.

...
What it means is that the only way to give or sell your copy of Office 2013 to someone else is to physically give it to them, by handing over the actual computer that the software is installed on.

Under these terms, you can't even transfer the software to yourself. If you buy a new PC, you're expected to buy a brand-new retail copy of Office to go with it, even if you uninstall it from your old machine.

Fysh

I look forward to the inevitable row about first-sale rights in the US (since several software vendors have started including licence terms which specifically allow the first purchaser to sell on their licence, as a way of getting around the first sale issue).

That said, this is pretty obviously an attempted upsell on Office 365 given that they've done this and combined it with the removal of the 3-seat licences at the same price. God knows I'm convinced about how awesome Office 365 will be, knowing that MS thought they had to completely hobble Office 2013 in order to make it a more appealing prospect...

Capt'n Midnight

There's an add on for Office 4.3 to allow long filename support.

Most users don't really need any of the new features since then.

Of course page scrolling would be mental

Torqay

Customers who will have their laptop or computer replaced under warranty will be delighted with the new policy.

Overheal

They had the same problem with Office that Apple has with it's iOS Devices: Once you saturate your customer base, it's several years before they bother to upgrade.

In the meantime they've continued to do things like drop support for older office suites on newer OSs. Which seems reasonable, given the costs to support older software. If it wasn't for Enterprise use, XP would have died a quick death last decade.

Locked licensing is like Torq says though a giant PITA for replacements.

For Enterprise though it should be noted they will pretty much all move to a 365 base anyway. They don't do volume licensing of 2013 to my understanding, it's all just 365, with businesses paying $x.xx per employee per month.

Not the best way to do things, but it's sad watching people come in to the shops today still looking for a computer that comes with Microsoft Works or Microsoft Money, because they can't be bothered learning newer things.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

it's sad watching people come in to the shops today still looking for a computer that comes with Microsoft Works or Microsoft Money, because they can't be bothered learning newer things.

Maybe it's because people can't be bothered with "paying $x.xx per month" for their occasional word processing needs? Which is "sad" for Microsoft.

It's clearly a result of Microsoft's monopoly (are there any commercial office suites worth mentioning still in business?). Microsoft is doing this for the same reason dogs are licking their balls.

Capt'n Midnight

Overheal wrote: »

it's sad watching people come in to the shops today still looking for a computer that comes with Microsoft Works or Microsoft Money, because they can't be bothered learning newer things.

Yeah, if it works it's obsolete

:rolleyes:

if you just want to use a computer to do a job then you don't want the wheel to be re-invented, there is a lot to be said for "if it works don't break it"


If you want to take a trip to space to the ISS, you're going there on a modified 1950's Russian ICBM.

Overheal

Well you'll all enjoy this.

I had to activate office for a customer today. Hadn't bought a computer in years. Still running Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Desktops. And, they don't use the internet. Long story short I felt that, without them being really savvy about having to deal/tolerate with compatibility issues, Office 2013 was the way to go.

Oh god.

First off, they are deathly paranoid of the internet, and identity theft, and all that in general. So they wouldn't allow us to retain any information to do their installs, and they want all this done asap of course, because Retail.

Queue me setting up their live account with their @belsouth.net email address... and go to bellsouth.net for the verification. Well for one, she never logs into this thing, so we spend 15 minutes setting up her bellsouth account. And all these asinine security questions that I only thought Apple was stupid enough to ask about.

Have office resend the verification code 3 or 4 times. Still nothing. Come to realize, belsouth.net is not bellsouth.net. Oh god.

"We sent a link to X@Belsouth.net" [Click here to use an alternate address]

*click*

"We're sorry but you can't change the email your account is associated with.

WTF?

So they give you the option, only to not give you the option. OK.... Call India. After 20 minutes, and being told to give them a callback number once, after giving me a 10 minute estimate on hold time, only to have the system call me back 30 seconds later, and 3 transfers and having to repeat myself 17 times because their phones are hooked up to bare copper wires or something, its clear nobody in India has the authority to get access to the account and add the letter l into the account's name field. So they escalate me to "Level 2" and give me a 4 hour wait time. Lovely. They also gave me two seperate case numbers. 5 hours later, I hear nothing back. So I call back with the case number. "Oh we need to escalate this to Level 2. They will call you back tomorrow" - Eh, no, you already did that. "I don't see notes on this". **** off, you do. Well, here's the first case number "...Oh there it is." Whats the point of the 2nd case number then?! "They will call you back in 4 hours" Dafuq?

OK whatever, screw this. Just eat the cost, give the customer a new office license. Logs into the current account to close it, because its jacked up to hell. "In order to close your Microsoft Account you need to [Cancel] your paid services (Office)" *click*. In order to do this, we need to first verify your @belsouth.net email adress.

Oh my dear ****ing christ.

Screw it. Set up a gmail.com account, then go to office.com/setup and start entering in new key. Immediately becomes apparent.... that I am still logged into the existing @belsouth.net account. So now, I've activated 2 licenses to a jacked up email account.

...So now I have to open up a third license, and do it right.

Dear Steve Balmer,

Why the **** when you set up a live account does it not ask you to verify email address like you do to verify password?

Why the **** doesn't it try to autocorrect common domain names (@Bellsouth.net, @gmail.com, @yahoo.com) ?

Why the **** do you tie the office license to a new Office Account before it becomes Verified?

Why the **** do you give the option to change the verification email address, when you forbid the user from changing the verification email address?

Why the **** does it take an entire business day (longer, actually, because nobody ever called me back) to add a mother ****ing letter in the name of an account?

Why the **** do you need to verify a new account before you can close it?

Why are you paying these people in India to do absolutely nothing?

Steve, I'm going to need you to pull your **** together.

Sincerely,

Overheal

What pisses me off most about it is just how many broken things I discovered today in the way Microsoft activates its office licenses currently. From ONE failed transaction. You expect most things in life to have maybe the odd bug or two, but I mean we're talking about a good fistful of systematically fallible things about the way Microsoft is currently handling accounts. I'd have lost the plot today but I haven't smoked anything in about a week (and feel pretty damn zen about it)

Torqay

Which begs the question, why the **** do people still put up with this?

Certainly casual home users and students don't need it and even SMBs should really consider alternatives.

Personally, I'm using Softmaker Office for more than 5 years now* and I never looked back. They offer probably the highest grade of compatibility to MSO file formats and a scripting language compatible to VBA. A reasonably priced, fast, cross-platform (Windows/Linux/Android) office suite with a simple sleek interface and decent support. A free version ( based on the 2010 release, i believe) which does not include the scripting language and email client is available here.

* In addition, I'm using Atlantis... but that's another story.

Overheal

Well because most people that encounter the problem are newbies. This was a problem with virgin account creation. I can activate a 365 license on my standing account without any issues. But yes, its jacked, and I want to climb up the ladder to someone who can fix these gross problems with their setup processes

Torqay

Since your clients are still running Windows 98 and 2000 and you felt, Office 2013 was the way to go, you must know a few tricks I don't (I could even get it to work with XP), care to share?

Overheal

It was for a new pc. The old pcs were being trashed.

Not going to have my tech guys try to get a 1998 version of Works to run on Windows 8

unkel

Sorry for your trouble, Overheal, you actually held it together better than most of us would have

Overheal wrote: »

we spend 15 minutes setting up her bellsouth account. And all these asinine security questions that I only thought Apple was stupid enough to ask about.

Have office resend the verification code 3 or 4 times. Still nothing. Come to realize, belsouth.net is not bellsouth.net. Oh god.

Single or double "l". Easy human mistake. Is it or isn't it?

Overheal wrote: »

Dear Steve Balmer,

Yes it is

I installed an MLK copy of 2013 Home and Business for the first time today, ugh it was a pain. Had to register the Microsoft account and then use Click to Run to download it. If I have to do this every single time I set up a new machine it'll drive me insane.

There is a copy of Office 2013 Professional Plus on the Volume Licensing Service Centre, with an installation procedure very similar to 2007/2010. I don't think it prompts to set up a Microsoft account either.

Can't remember the last time I installed Office on my personal machine, been using OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice for years.

Overheal

you can close out of that intro video and it will still install at least

Squeaky the Squirrel

Annnnnnnd, it's back to the way it was.

Overheal

Makes way more sense for the customer, even though I sigh a little every time a customer goes "No I already have a 20 year old copy of Office"

It's a HUGE validation for all the crap they make you go through to activate it though!!

Torqay

But you still can't transfer the software to another user?

The European Court of Justice has recently ruled that the sale of used software is permissible when sold in the European Union. Maybe Microsoft is looking forward to paying the next half billion in fines?

tylercheribini

cant wait to get my hands on this lateast version of word, i hear it pisses all over previous editions. hd font graphics and blazing fast page opening/save times. my office 2010 looks like a smashed piece of slate and chalk now

Fysh

Torqay wrote: »

But you still can't transfer the software to another user?

The European Court of Justice has recently ruled that the sale of used software is permissible when sold in the European Union. Maybe Microsoft is looking forward to paying the next half billion in fines?

I would have thought that in the US first sale doctrine already covers the selling-on aspect (though subsequent sales are stuffed, IIRC), so now that activation mechanisms allow licence transfers the issue should be sorted.

I wonder if that was a factor in their decision to undo this brainless decision?

Capt'n Midnight

Torqay wrote: »

Maybe Microsoft is looking forward to paying the next half billion in fines?

It's less than 1% of what they have tucked under the mattress


Anyway software isn't sold, it's a license so lots of customer protection legitimisation doesn't apply

Torqay

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Anyway software isn't sold, it's a license so lots of customer protection legitimisation doesn't apply

No, the European Court specifically upheld the customer's right to sell licenses for used software or content, physical (CD/DVD) or downloaded copy, it doesn't matter.

Click

Overheal

Which seems strange, it seems more analogous to me going through all the procedures to get a drivers license then selling it to someone else.

Fysh

Overheal wrote: »

Which seems strange, it seems more analogous to me going through all the procedures to get a drivers license then selling it to someone else.

That's not really a useful way to look at it, though, because government permits like a driving licence or gun licence are fundamentally different to software licences when it comes to eligibility.

A software licence is a permission to use an intangible product in a particular manner. The only thing required to obtain such a licence is payment of the asking price, and for general consumers the default position is that you are eligible to obtain a licence, unless proven otherwise.

A driving licence is a permission from a government body to take charge of a vehicle. The requirements are various, and are mostly non-financial in nature; the default position is that you are not eligible to obtain a licence until proven otherwise.

Software licences are about ensuring that people using software pay for the right to do so; driving licences are about ensuring that people who drive do so safely as per government-mandated standards. When you buy a book, you have a licence to sell that book in most European countries - said licence explicitly prevents you from removing the front cover of the book. This is down to the returns mechanism used in the publishing industry, and the licence term is included to ensure that retailers are not allowed to sell on books while simultaneously returning the covers as part of the returns process (which gets them a rebate).

What I'm getting at is that with physical objects we have a tendency to assume that possession is 9/10s of the law, but licences can apply to physical objects as much as to intangibles. However, software in particular makes it much easier for the vendor to enforce the licence, hence we're more aware of them (and in cases like Office 2013, willing to argue and fight back over unreasonable terms).