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# OFF: Microsoft Office Licensing Policy

Article ID: 123761

Article Last Modified on 8/15/2005

APPLIES TO

- Microsoft Office 4.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 4.2 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 4.3 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 95 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q123761

## SUMMARY

The following information describes the licensing policy for Microsoft Office.
Please note that PSS is not responsible for this information. Microsoft Sales Information Center is responsible for this information, and customers that have licensing questions about any Microsoft application should be directed to them. However, the following Q&A provides a brief description of how Microsoft's licensing policies apply to Microsoft Office.
NOTE: Microsoft Access is included only with the Professional Edition of Microsoft Office.

## MORE INFORMATION

    1. Q. How is licensing for Office different from most other Microsoft
          products?

       A. In The Microsoft Office there is ONE license agreement that lists all
          four products in Office--Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Word,
          PowerPoint, and Mail. The entire Office is treated as a single
          license. It is NOT to be divided up, so that four different users can
          each use one of the Office programs all at the same time.

          Office is covered under concurrent use, but concurrent use should be
          measured by the number of users accessing ANY program in the Office.
          This means that when a user is using one component, such as Word,
          they have "checked out" the whole Office--Access, Word, Excel,
          PowerPoint, and Mail. For a specific example, if an account has
          signed a concurrent use agreement for 100 licenses, when one user is
          using Word there are only 99 licenses remaining. You cannot have a
          scenario where 100 people are using Word, another 100 people are
          using Excel, another 100 people are using PowerPoint and a different
          100 are using Mail. (Such a situation would require 400 Office
          licenses.)

    2. Q. Is Mail covered under the concurrent license clause as it applies to
          Office?

       A. The Mail workstation is not licensed for concurrent use. For example,
          2 persons who each use mail cannot share ONE license by accessing
          their accounts at different times. Each person who uses mail needs to
          have a mail license. In an account with 200 users and 100 copies of
          Office, an additional 100 copies of the mail client need to be
          licensed for everyone to use mail.

    Legal & Licensing - General Information

    3. Q. What is "concurrent use"?

       A. Software is "in use" on a computer when it is installed into the
          permanent memory (typically a hard disk, but possibly CD-ROM, or
          other storage device), or loaded into the temporary memory, or "RAM."
          On a network, a product may be used in either of following ways:

             - By installing the product on the workstation's hard disk and
                running the software "locally"

                -or-

             - By installing the product only on the network server and running
               the software "off the server." By running the product off the
               server, the network server loads a copy of the software into the
               temporary memory, or "RAM," of the workstation, but it is not
               stored in the workstation's permanent memory. This distinction
               is important later when we discuss how to count the number of
               licenses needed for a computer network.

          "Concurrent use" occurs when one copy of a software product is
          accessed from a network server and used by two or more nodes or
          "workstations" on that network. For example, a network of ten
          workstations would have five "concurrent users" of a product if, at
          any one time, a maximum of five workstations have the product loaded
          into temporary memory, and the remaining workstations do not have the
          product loaded into either temporary or permanent memory. Note that
          the identity of the five concurrent users may change over time, but
          in this example the maximum never exceeds five.

    4. Q. Will concurrent users be charged a different price?

       A. The end-user license agreement allows concurrent use at no extra
          charge.

    5. Q. If I load the product on the hard disk of every workstation on the
          network, can I still count the number of concurrent users so I don't
          have to purchase a license for every workstation? Is the answer
          different if I use the so-called "electronic token" technology to
          limit the actual number of concurrent users?

       A. Loading the product onto the hard disk or other storage device of a
          workstation is a "use" that requires a license. It makes no
          difference if you have an "electronic token" system to regulate use.
          The only way you may have fewer licenses than workstations on a
          network is if some of the workstations access the product off the
          network server itself (i.e., the product is not stored on the
          workstation's hard disk), and you have determined that less than all
          such workstations use the product at any one time. Of course, if you
          transfer or "download" the product from the server to a workstation's
          hard disk--which requires one license--you may later completely
          delete the product off that hard disk to free that license for use
          elsewhere.

    6. Q. How do I determine how many licenses I need for my company to comply
          with the Microsoft license agreement?

       A. Starting with the principle that you need one license for each use of
          the product, there are two basic rules that you need to follow in
          counting the number of "uses" of the product in your company. First,
          each copy of the product that is installed on a hard disk or other
          storage device of a computer is a "use" that requires one license.
          Second, if you will use the product on a computer network, and you
          will have fewer licenses than the total number of workstations, then
          you need to determine the maximum number of concurrent users of the
          product you will have at any one time. The total number of uses,
          arrived at by adding the number of concurrent users on a network,
          determines the number of licenses you need.

    7. Q. Is the new Microsoft license a site license? If not, how do they
          differ?

       A. The new Microsoft concurrent use license is not a site license
          because each use requires a separate license. In a "site license," a
          company is given unlimited rights to use a software product for a
          flat fee.

Additional query words: 4.00 4.20 4.20c 4.30 4.30c

Keywords: kbpolicy KB123761