FAST are coming! Licence issues

[Jimmy Little]

just trying to get the licences up to date before FAST come next month!! Most things have been set in place we just have a few issues with MS Office.

Ok here are the facts

14 computers have Office 2000 premium installed. Each machine has a box with its software and for each of these computers there is a OEM Office XP licence and disc. My simple question is, does Office XP override a Office 2000 Premium? As we don’t want to install Office XP OEM’s as these machines are due to be scraped within the next six months. If not any ideas or options? We were thinking about installing Office 2000 pro on each machine as a stop gap, the problem is these machines are very old now and to uninstall Office 2000 premium plus disc two takes around 45 mins a machine, then there is the install time of the new office and the setup that needs to be done.

Bugger!

[scottyman]

fun -
I'd call your licensing provider and check with them... had a similar problem with the BSA - where I had licenses for everything (office 2000 sbe) and upgraded them all to office xp pro with ms licensing... left it on a few of the older machines, and ended up having a huge fight with the BSA. We ended up getting microsoft to intercede, with a statement confirming that they were happy with our licensing arrangement and that it was not mandatory for us to upgrade at that time.

you will need a comprehensive spreadsheet detailing everything - also provide photos of all new machines with oem license keys attached to the sides of the chassis. any old machines you've dumped - you'll also need evidence of that (particularly if you've replaced them with new machines and don't have oem license stickers attached, especially if you've got retail versions installed) we managed to get our oem licenses from old machines upgraded to full, transferable licenses by contacting our ms software license suppliers (in our case - it was microwarehouse) - it's always better going through a large company as they'll have a dedicated team dealing with this, and they've always got a better idea of what's going on than you will!

[Skii]

Stamp out piracy at its very core - raid the local school and fine them

sheesh

I won't go into my views on Microsloths educational licensing policy. cnuts.

[Jimmy Little]

Cheers guys, this is at a company I’m working for not my school as that would be easy! We have spent 2000k on audit software and after many hours this is are last bit we have to deal with…

[nichomach]

Short answer is that your OEM licenses don't confer downgrade rights; multiple license packs do, but not OEM, so if the only office licenses you have are the OEM ones for XP, you don't have any option other than to run the version that your license covers, i.e. XP.

[Jimmy Little]

ok so we really need to pull the premiums of which i'm doing and stick the XP offcie OEM's on. this is a bugger as we want to replace these machines, but i guess we need to get past FAST first.

[nichomach]

You could cut the time by copying the CD content to a network server (setup /a)and running your installs concurrently from there; so long as all the copies of OfficeXP are Pro, say, and you only run the install on machines entitled to use them, then you shouldn't be breaking any license conditions.

Actually, if you have Windows 2000 Server (or better) you might find THIS useful - you can deploy Office via Group Policy, i.e. automate the entire process. Create an OU for the PCs with the OEM licenses, create transforms for the options you want and define a Group Policy Object to apply the transform to the OU.

[Jimmy Little]

thanks bud, i will check those links out

[SilentDeath]

So 14 machines currently have office 200 without licence to do so BUT they have liences for office XP BUT you cba to upgrade it...

Whats FAST? I assume its when the software you have gets checked against your licences?

Replace them before doing FAST?

[nichomach]

FAST=Federation Against Software Theft. The license police, basically, and I spoke with one of their chaps this week. Provided your procedures are sorted and you demonstrate a clear policy of compliance, they're not bad at all. They can also advise on other areas of legal compliance, like data protection and email retention. Their objective is to make sure businesses are properly licenced, not just to you over for non-compliance. And to be fair, its not just a cba thing; lots of people assume "if I've got a license for OfficeXP, it must be OK to run 2000 instead" - indeed, if you have the right licence it is OK. It's just that OEM licences don't confer that right.

[Jimmy Little]

started sticking the oem xp's on crappy PII 400 computers! what a waste, but i'm not the boss and do as i'm told

[nichomach]

I don't quiteunderstand how you've ended up with OEM copies for such old machines; OEM licences have to be sold with qualifying hardware.

[Jimmy Little]

yeah i thought that two, maybe they came with other computer which now have office 2003, i have not been here that long so i will try and find out more.

anyone else here had FAST come and visit them? what are they like?

[Paul Adams]

anyone else here had FAST come and visit them? what are they like?

Where I used to work, they got in touch with our IT Director and said that they wanted to audit us, he was confident that we were good so said okay... then they said that for a nominal fee up front, if they found that we were not 100% compliant then they would assist us instead of pressing charges.

This was considered extortion by our IT department, so we told them to bugger off and forget it - it turns out they don't have God-like powers to descend upon you and audit you, it has to be mutually agreed.

We never heard from them again.

[Jimmy Little]

thanks paul, worth noting down