This article was written by Rich Gibbons of ITAM Review and Noel Unwin of Discount Licensing.

In July 2012, the second-hand software market received a definitive answer from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) when it ruled that reselling intangible software was legal. The rights of the software vendor to control the resale of the software copy is ‘exhausted’ after the first sale of the copy (Exhaustion Principle). This precedent is encapsulated within the European Software Directive 2009.

Short answer: no. Buying and selling used software is now legally protected in Europe following the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling back in 2012 which enabled businesses to legally sell their disused software licence assets. The most important factor to bear in mind when purchasing used software licences is to use a reputable secondary reseller that can provide your business with the unique perpetual software licence agreement number (identifying the original Microsoft customer) and ownership documents. Perpetual used software does not expire or need renewing and will continue to be supported by the vendor in exactly the same way as new software licence customer enjoy. Unlike with the Cloud, used software businesses do not have to renew/install the latest software version when launched – used software clients can maintain a previous version of the software on its network.

If you're buying new equipment or software for your business, you may have considered pre-owned software as an alternative to buying a brand new software at the full price. After all, that reduction in cost can make expensive Microsoft software more affordable to any business that wants to stretch its IT budget. But when you choose to buy pre-owned software, will your business be limited to what it can do in comparison to buying new? Read on to find out more…

When setting out to acquire new software solutions for your business, it can be tempting to save money by opting for used software. You could purchase a fresh licence directly from Microsoft, or you could purchase a second-hand licence from a reseller - perhaps even from eBay! There are advantages and disadvantages to each option, so it is important to be aware of all the facts before making a decision about which way to go. Here we compare the option of buying new against buying second hand - which is right for you?

With Discount-Licensing, you have a simple and effective way to buy Microsoft software. We sell licences for second-hand software, which means our customers get their own, fully-functional software without having to splash out on a more expensive software product. In terms of installation and usage, there is no disadvantage to buying used software as opposed to the brand new software alternative, except for the risk of being sold fake activation codes from rogue resellers. We offer a marketplace for legitimate, trustworthy licences that are completely legal and above board.

If you're upgrading the software in your business or simply maintaining compliance, it can be difficult to know the exact scale and level of licences needed to cover all your employees and have room for expansion too. One solution to this is to work with a Microsoft Authorised Reseller for a Microsoft Office for multiple computers licence, which can provide you with the freedom you need to keep your business thriving and your budgets tight.

SAM tool vendor Snow Software reports that Adobe has lost a case of reselling secondary software in the USA that has good implications for the US secondary software market. Find out more here.

Check out this video to see what some of our experts have to say about recycling Microsoft software licensing: https://discount-licensing.com/files/Discount-Licensing%20Ltd%20-%20Corporate%20Video.mp4

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