When Microsoft first launched Office 2013, it was a fairly outrageous affair. The company revealed that the Office 2013 license would apply to only the first machine it would be installed on, making it impossible to transfer it to a new PC or a different machine. After a huge uproar, the company has reviewed and now, changed this policy.
Apparently, Microsoft had first adopted the strategy of restricting Office 2013 licenses to a single machine so that more users could be pushed towards its Office 365 subscription model. Office 365 allow users to access their Office Suite from multiple devices, for a given monthly fee.
The move apparently backfired because the Office 2013 license restrictions were very unfair. It was as if Microsoft was forcefully pushing the Office users towards Office 365 and limiting their choices elsewhere.
The real problem was that if you installed Office 2013 on a PC and then that PC broke down, you couldn’t transfer the license for the software suite to a different machine. Apparently, the company was kind enough to consider the negative feedback from the customers and has now decided to change this policy.
In a new blog post, Microsoft has announced that it is removing the Office 2013 license restrictions. The license is now transferable, although a few conditions do apply. Among these is that an Office 2013 license can be transferred to a different machine only once in 90 days and at a given time, it will be active only on a single machine. The change is a huge relief to Office users.
Source: Microsoft
Courtesy: The Verge
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They weren’t “kind enough” to do it, they figured out someone would successfully sue them over it.
Looks better to cut the crap voluntarily than being forced by a court (again)…