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Operating Systems
If Microsoft wins this UK court case it might spell the end of second-hand Windows licenses
9 September 2025
Microsoft’s defence is to do with “non-program” parts of the OS.
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Microsoft and the software reseller ValueLicensing have been going at each other for a while now, but the outcome of the latest trial that’s starting up in the UK could have real ramifications on the second-hand software market.
The Register reports that the trial, which starts today, will sit before the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and reminds us that the case “has the potential to blow a hole in the European reselling market.” That’s because, according to the reseller, “if Microsoft’s argument is correct, it would mean that the entire resale market in Europe should not exist.”
Microsoft’s argument is reportedly that it shouldn’t have been legal for ValueLicensing to sell second-hand Windows or Office software because “non-program copyright works” [PDF] of the OS, such as the graphical user interface (GUI), are copyrighted and cannot be resold. This, unlike program copyright works, which seemingly can.
Related Articles
A guy in California is suing Microsoft for discontinuing Windows 10, demanding free extended support
Microsoft yanks the plug on Windows 11 SE, giving school and college IT techs a little over a year to find a suitable replacement
Netherlands takes Sony to court over digital-only walled garden allegedly costing 1.7m citizens 435 million euros since 2013
The legal battle between the two companies didn’t begin with this, though. It actually began in 2021 when ValueLicensing filed against Microsoft for £270 million, alleging that Microsoft had stifled competition in the software market.
ValueLicensing claimed to have lost substantial money because Microsoft engaged in practices such as offering users to trade their licenses in for other discounts on its other services. If users and businesses take up the offer, then those particular licenses won’t be going into the second-hand market.
Microsoft is now pushing back against this by claiming the software shouldn’t have been on the second-hand market in the first place.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
According to The Register, ValueLicensing said: “It’s a remarkable coincidence that their defense against ValueLicensing has changed so dramatically from being a defense of ‘we didn’t do it’ to a defense of ‘the market should never have existed.'”
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I probably shouldn’t poll you folks (our readers) on how many of you have bought Windows from a reseller, but I’d bet the numbers are high. It’s quite a common way of getting Windows for cheap, provided you don’t just use the free and somewhat limited version, which is entirely doable.
If Microsoft wins this case on the grounds it’s laying out, it could indeed set a new precedent that could cause quite a shake-up in the second-hand software market. Part of me wonders whether that would be a good thing for Microsoft.
With Windows 10 approaching end of life and some people still seeming resistant to commit to Windows 11 and even trying out alternatives like Linux, I’m not sure making Windows even more inaccessible would be a good idea.
A much better idea, monetarily, might be to make Windows very accessible—keeping the second-hand market booming—but moving towards charging for everything as a service. Although I think every software company under the sun has already received that memo.
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Hardware Writer
Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob’s led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world’s #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It’s definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.
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A guy in California is suing Microsoft for discontinuing Windows 10, demanding free extended support
Microsoft yanks the plug on Windows 11 SE, giving school and college IT techs a little over a year to find a suitable replacement
Netherlands takes Sony to court over digital-only walled garden allegedly costing 1.7m citizens 435 million euros since 2013
Elon Musk claims to be making Microsoft competitor named Macrohard and despite the ‘tongue-in-cheek name’, the project is unfortunately ‘very real’
When Microsoft finally pulls the plug on Windows 10 its successor will be four years old, and for three of those, it was never the OS of choice amongst Steam users
Critics claim the latest judgement against Google is a ‘feckless remedy to the most storied case of monopolisation of the past quarter century’ while the US DOJ says ‘we’re not done’
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