The legality of second-hand Microsoft Windows and Office licenses is back under the microscope as the company’s battle with a UK-based reseller returns to court this week. The matter concerns whether core parts of Microsoft’s software are exempt from Europe’s software resale rules, and what that could mean for the grey market that many DIYers rely on.
The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) is holding a three-day hearing, running through September 11, to resolve a key question in the case: Do certain components of Windows and Office fall outside the EU’s software exhaustion rules? As it stands, these rules allow the resale of perpetual software licenses. Microsoft argues that the resale doctrine only applies to computer programs, and not to “non-program” elements like the GUI, which it says remain under copyright control even after the license is sold.
