can purchased software be used on more than 1 PC

M

majee

Registered User
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I puchased MS office enterprise (has word, powerpoint, excel etc) through a work scheme and downloaded it on my laptop. it was sent to me via an e-mail from which I downloaded the software i.e there was no physical disk to load the software. Mrs majee has since bought herself a laptop. my question is this: is this a one-shot download or should I be able to download the same sofware onto her laptop? (her laptop came with limited software). if the answer is yes, whats to stop me from e-mailing all my friends with this so that they can do the same (other than me being a person of the highest integrity!!!!!).
 
Generally there's a license key that will be input onto the computer & is unique so you can't use it again. A lot of software licensing is trust-based mind you so often there's nothing technical to stop you from copying it - the restrictions will be in the user agreement.
 
Microsoft also have product activation. Once installed, with the licence key entered, you have to activate the product. This is normally done online, but sometimes you have to phone them. MS keep track of the number of times a key has been activated.

This is what stops the scenario you are taking about.

In general, it depends on the licence agreement on how many machines the product can be installed, and how long you can use the product for.
 
I recently bought Office 2008 which has 3 license keys. Two used to date!
 
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