I am confused as to what I need to do

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  Hello Frustrated in NC,
  
  Here is a snippet of your mgadiag report:
  OGA Data-->
  Office Status: 114 Blocked VLK 2
  Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 - 114 Blocked VLK 2
  Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 - 100 Genuine
  Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003 - 100 Genuine
  Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 - 100 Genuine
  Microsoft Office Access Runtime (English) 2007 - 121
  OGA Version: Registered, 2.0.48.0
  Signed By: Microsoft
  Office Diagnostics: 025D1FF3-230-1
  
  The current installation of Office Professional Edition 2003 on your Dell Dimension 4600 computer is a nongenuine Volume Licesning installation that was done with a widely pirated and now blocked Volume Licensing product Key.
  
  A "blocked" VLK is one that was issued by Microsoft to a business, educational institution, or governmental agency for their exclusive use in accordance with a Volume Licensing Agreement.  (Note that such use does NOT allow the resale of such VLKs.)  However, because the VLK may have been reported lost, stolen, or compromised to the internet by the original keyholder, or because the Volume Licensing Agreement has expired, Microsoft has blocked the VLK from further use.
  
  In looking at your report I noticed that the other three Office-family products (Viso, Project, and OneNote) installed on the computer are also Volume Licensing editions of these products.  If your use of these Volume Licensing editions of all four of these Office-family products is in association with an organization that has a Volume Licensing Agreement, then please contact the IT support staff of the organization for further assistance.
  
  If you are an individual consumer, you should never have been sold Volume Licensing (VL) materials such as a VL installation discs, and you certainly should not have received a Blocked Product Key for Office Professional 2003.  You should have been sold Genuine retail licensed software.
  
  Could you tell us if you purchased all four products thinking they were retail licenses for these products, or if your use of these poducts is covered by a Volume Licensing agreement thru a larger business, educational, or governmental organization?

  ---

  For great advice on all topics XP, visit http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp

  • Marked as answer by Darin Smith MS Friday, March 5, 2010 11:21 PM

  Monday, March 1, 2010 4:13 PM
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  Dan,

  
  

  I am an individual consumer and purchased the products, along with the operating system and computer, thinking the purchase included legal ownership of the retail software licenses.  The vendor advertised the software as being included.  There was no mention of volume licensing editions.

  
  

  The sale offering did not mention OneNote 2003.  I don't even know what OneNote 2003 was until I saw your response.  It was likely included on the Microsoft Office CD-ROM that was sent to me.

  
  

  You stated "...tell us..."; who is us?  What is IT Associates association with Microsoft?  

  
  

  In my situation, has the VLK (volume license key?) been reported lost, stolen or compromised to the internet by the original keyholder?  Did the Volume Licensing Agreement for my software expire?  I need to know this information prior to going to the vendor to investigate and/or complain.  The seller is a major corporation in the United States.  

  Sunday, March 7, 2010 1:16 PM
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  Hello Frustrated in NC,
  
  It is not all that uncommon for a person to purchase a used computer (as surplus, off-lease, reccyled, etc) from a larger organization that is downsizing, moving, or fielding a new batch of computers, where the selling organization fails to "clean up" the contents of the hard disk drives of the computers being sold.
  
  Organizations such as these forget that their Volume Licensing Agreements with Microsoft do not permit them to dispose of the computers with their Volume Licensing Software still installed.  While this may seem to be a trivial violation, the unfortunate result is that the person buying the computer thinks that, just because the software was on the computer they bought, they then have some sort of ownership or usage rights to the software, and because there is the perveived added value of the additional software, they may subconsciously assign a greater value to that computer and may be willing to pay more for the computer thinking it has an extra "bonus" of lots of software.
  
  In reality, the selling organization has no more authority to sell these installations of their Volume Licensing software than they have to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.
  
  You wrote, "In my situation, has the VLK (volume license key?) been reported lost, stolen or compromised to the internet by the original keyholder?  Did the Volume Licensing Agreement for my software expire?  I need to know this information prior to going to the vendor to investigate and/or complain.  The seller is a major corporation in the United States."
  
  The VLK for Office is a widely pirated product key that ends in 3HDFY.  You can use a keyfinder utility such as the Magical Jellybean Keyfinder to see for yourself.  The original keyholder for the 3HFDY key was Microsoft itself.  In the case of the other mentioned titles, the product keys are still Genuine, but only for the organization(s) who ahve those product keys under a Volume Licensing Agreement.  As an individual consumer you would never have a Volume Licensing Agreement.
  
  You wrote, "You stated "...tell us..."; who is us?  What is IT Associates association with Microsoft?"  The "us" is just the "rhetorical" us used as a figure of speech.  IT Associates is my small consulting company, we are Microsoft registered partners, which is the least of three kinds of one partuclar business relationship a consulting business can have with Microsoft:  registered partner, certified partner, and gold certified partner.

  ---

  For great advice on all topics XP, visit http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp

  Monday, March 8, 2010 1:28 PM
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  Dan,

   

  Thank you for the expedient response.  I was also provided the installation CD-ROMs for this software when I made the purchases.  I believe I transacted in 2006.  I will search for the documentation when I get home later this week.

   

  Why did Microsoft take this long to take action?  I have been connecting to Microsoft for updates for many years.  In the past, there was some validation process taking place prior to getting regular updates.  Up until about a month ago, everything passed the validation process.

   

  For the software, other than Office, can you identify who the organization is that has the product keys?  I will likely take legal action against the seller if they don’t act in good faith to resolve the matter.  As much information that you can provide will be appreciated.  Since the vendor is a subsidiary of a large U.S. corporation (first name has 4 letters), I should be able to pursue this through a small claims court filing in my home state.  Since I am probably not the only one impacted, a national class action lawsuit may also be possible.  How many other users have this issue?

   

  To ensure that I have the use of the software until I can resolve the matter, what is Microsoft’s position for continued use of the software?  It seems to me that Microsoft is not that much of a victim if they allowed their “3HDFY” VLK for Office to be easily pirated or be used by an unsuspected user without a visible warning of the licensing arrangement.

  Monday, March 8, 2010 5:15 PM
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  Why did Microsoft take this long to take action?  I have been connecting to Microsoft for updates for many years.  In the past, there was some validation process taking place prior to getting regular updates.  Up until about a month ago, everything passed the validation process.
  

  For the software, other than Office, can you identify who the organization is that has the product keys?  I will likely take legal action against the seller if they don’t act in good faith to resolve the matter.  As much information that you can provide will be appreciated.  Since the vendor is a subsidiary of a large U.S. corporation (first name has 4 letters), I should be able to pursue this through a small claims court filing in my home state.  Since I am probably not the only one impacted, a national class action lawsuit may also be possible.  How many other users have this issue?

   

  To ensure that I have the use of the software until I can resolve the matter, what is Microsoft’s position for continued use of the software?  It seems to me that Microsoft is not that much of a victim if they allowed their “3HDFY” VLK for Office to be easily pirated or be used by an unsuspected user without a visible warning of the licensing arrangement.

   

  Like Windows XP, Office does not have the internal validation checks that Windows Vista and Windows 7 have, and that Office 2010 will have.  Furthermore, Volume Licensing installations of Office do not go thru the Activation process as a matter of convenience for large corproate customers.  There are only two checks for "genuineness" applied to Office.  One comes in the form of a voluntary download and installation of the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notification Utility, which is deployed as an important (not critical) Microsoft update.  If you just recently were notified of nongenuine software, you probably just recently installed the OGA update (KB949810).  The other would be performed if you visited Microsoft downloads and happened to want to download one of the very few "nice-to-have" Office goodies (templates, perhaps) that are gated by whether the computer downloading has the OGA Notifications Utility installed and reporting genuine software.
  
  
  
  I am not a Microsoft employee so I do not have access to the information about which organization owns what product keys, or how many people have been victimized by counterfeit, misused, or not properly licensed software.  In 3.5 years of participation in this forum, I can tell you that I have never seen a post where a Microsoft employee has divulged such information (other than the two "notorious" Office product keys originally owned by Microsoft itself), so I would guess that they are not permitted to do so.
  
  As far as the visible warning of the licensing arrangement, if you were given genuine Microsoft Volume Licensing installation discs for Office 2003, there are warnings right on the disc itself:  "(Volume Licensing Product Key Required)"; "All use subject to volume licensing agreement."; "Not for retail or OEM distribution.  Not for resale."  And on the back of the typical white plastic sleeve these discs come in, there is a yellow label that explains some volume licensing details, and which states in bold font "UNLICENSED SOFTWARE--Illegal without separate license from Microsoft."

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  For great advice on all topics XP, visit http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp

  Tuesday, March 9, 2010 6:35 PM
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  Dan,

  
  

  Thank you again for the quick and detailed reply.  You did not answer the following question.

  
  

  To ensure that I have the use of the software until I can resolve the matter, what is Microsoft’s position for continued use of the software? 

  Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:27 AM
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  Dan,

  
  

  Thank you again for the quick and detailed reply.  You did not answer the following question.

  
  

  To ensure that I have the use of the software until I can resolve the matter, what is Microsoft’s position for continued use of the software? 

  
  I cannot speak for Microsoft as I am not a Microsoft employee.

  ---

  For great advice on all topics XP, visit http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp

  Friday, March 12, 2010 6:00 AM