THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

Open licensing changes frustrate one reseller:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=56229

"As for customers requiring a WindowsLive ID, it's a matter of security. Customers ultimately own the license and the software even if they hand over permission to their IT environment to a solution provider, Sharp said."

There's a nagging question I'd like to know.  Was this an issue in the past or merely something done for the Attorneys.  As I was poking around the VLSC web site seeing if there was a Windows 7 Ultimate license I could download or order a media kit like there was for Vista Ultimate, the more you dig around the VLSC web site, the more you hit spots that are still the old web sites.

I still don't think this site is small business friendly as it should be.  I'm poking around and having to try to figure out where things moved around to.

As part of the new system integration, Microsoft is increasing security to mitigate privacy and anti-piracy concerns. If customers would like partners to work on their behalf, the customers must add their partner of choice as an administrator for Open Licenses.

You know, there were partners that posted (whether or not they actually did so) that they were going to go to bittorrent to download media because they couldn't get access.  I'm not sure how this is mitigating anti-piracy.  The best apology would still be a month extension on everyone's license agreement.

On Wednesday, February 3rd there will be multiple webcasts showcasing the new process -- http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2010/01/27/microsoft-volume-licensing-center-vlsc-webcasts-for-partners-register-today.aspx

I'd urge everyone to make time for a webcast. I'll be honest and say that it will take some time for me to regain the favor of open value licensing I once had.