Microsoft is taking hard actions against the illegal sale of individual product keys for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. In a press release, Microsoft has pointed out the distribution of false license keys and gives some tips on how to detect fake software:
With the blocking of over 50,000 product keys, Microsoft fights against a new form of software piracy. The 25-character code necessary to activate Windows or Office were sold as real licenses.
In reality, however, the product keys usually belong to time-limited licenses for trial versions or OEM licenses and have been illegally distributed.
In addition, Microsoft has recently filed several lawsuits against providers of manipulated licenses and stopped numerous offers on trading platforms. Users can accidentally take considerable risks when using the wrong product keys.
Microsoft has been consistently combating the sale of illegal software for years.
In the past two years alone, hundreds of thousands of counterfeit data carriers – above all Windows 7 Recovery DVDs – and counterfeit certificates of authenticity (so-called COAs) have been obtained.
If your Microsoft product/license key doesn’t work or has stopped working, you should contact the seller and request a refund. If you bought a product key separate from the software, it’s very possible the product key was stolen or otherwise fraudulently obtained, and subsequently blocked for use. Unfortunately, there are many dishonest sellers who offer stolen, abused or otherwise unauthorized Microsoft product keys for sale. Sometimes these product keys are printed on counterfeit labels or cards with a download link to Microsoft software, and sometimes they’re distributed with software media that is unauthorized for resales, such as promotional media, original equipment manufacturer reinstallation media, or other Microsoft program-specific media.
About MSDN or TechNet Product Keys
They are genuine Microsoft product keys, they are actually retail licenses, but it is intended for a particular product channel either the Microsoft Software Developer Network (MSDN) or TechNet for IT Professionals who pay a subscription fee. The main purpose is for evaluation purposes. The great thing about them, unlike trial Microsoft software, MSDN or TechNet keys don’t expire. Because the agreement under which the subscription is provided is a single license, none of the software should be distributed outside of it. Even though its $50,000 worth of licenses, it is for one person only to use and no one else. Unfortunately, regardless of the licensing terms, persons still abuse the program, either giveaway product keys or resell it on auction sites, there are many sellers in India who are selling these keys for like $2-3USD. Microsoft licenses it in good faith that customers won’t do so, but I guess human nature wins out.
In your case, what probably happened is, you bought an MSDN licensed key, which carries up to 10 activations unlike full packaged retail licenses which only carry 1 activation. The person who sold it to you probably sold it to 10 other persons. Somewhere along the way, one of those persons might have installed it on a second system, activated it, because it went past 10 activation threshold, Microsoft detected it that it was being abused and blocked the key from further use.
