I don't think I'm supposed to have an Enterprise Edition of Office

Tek7 (Legacy)

Tek7 (Legacy)

CGA & ToJ President
My wife and I went to her college's bookstore earlier today to purchase the Student Edition of Microsoft Office 2003. We paid our $67 and tax, thanked the cashier, and went on our merry way.

Earlier this evening, I noticed the words "Enterprise Edition" printed on the CDs. Where I expected to find "Microsoft Office 2003" on the lower half of the CD, I found "Microsoft Licensing." Another section, on the right side of the CD printing, is obscured by a product label, but does not cover up the word "volume."

Did the cashier hand us the wrong item? Did she mean to give us a Volume Licensing CD, or was it an accident?

EDIT: Here's a photo of the CD:
 
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Is it possible that the school has the volume license, and they are just selling the license for one PC? I'm probably not phrasing that right. It just seems unlikely that they would have something like that behind the counter at the bookstore. They only other version they even sell there has a license for 3 PC's.
 
Yeah, the more I think about it, it can't be right because they market the student edition as just having Word, Excell, PPT, and Outlook. So I'm sure the school didn't do it on purpose. Weird.

It's especially weird after the girl at the counter made a big deal out of it being a license for just ONE computer. I'm like yes, I know. And then she gives me a volume license. Heh.

Thanks for the help!
 
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Or it could be that someone is buying pirated copies out of China to keep their profit margins high...

if that is the case, ship it back with a Bible in the box!
 
UPDATE: My wife discovered, on her college's web site, that the college sells Office Pro, not Office Student Edition, for $67.00. So them selling us Office Pro makes sense. But the volume licensing? I still can't quite make sense of that.

Maybe the school has a volume license, and they provide students with single licenses? Maybe that's their way of distributing the software?
 
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Here's the info, pulled directly from the college's web site:
Student Licensing

Students must present a valid [...] student ID for verification. A copy of the software is included with student licensing. Microcomputer program students are not eligible for Student licensing. [...]

Windows Licensing

Microsoft Windows XP License
$67.00

Microsoft Office Pro 2003 For Windows License
$67.00

[...]
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So it sounds like we received the right package and the right license.
 
I think you're safe. You can't legally resell, but you're fine for installing and getting updates.

I like the deal I get. By being a CS student at my local university, I am able to legally download and install the latest versions of Visual Studio, Visio, and Windows. I can legally download the beta of Vista if I really wanted to (I don't). The only thing I'm really interested in though is Visual Studio.
 
Tolkien said:
There is a Microsoft Agreement available to educational organizations.
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I was thinking this was the case.

I was mostly confused because I had it in my head that I was going to be buying the Student Edition. They sell the Student Edition, but it's $150, not $67.
 
There is another way of looking at it that would justify the school's action. Here at work, we can purchase a copy of Office for business use for a ridiculously low price (I think $4.99 or something) and they use it to cover the shipping on an existing license. Once you count in the initial shipping, stocking, inventory, security, labor, and space rental costs, you might get close to $67. Granted, that would mean it took someone a couple hours to shelf it, it was shipped singly by courier, and it was hand made by elves... :)
 
UPDATE: I plan on calling Microsoft today to determine whether or not I can legally use the product key we purchased. When I get an answer, I'll post it here.
 
Tek7 said:
UPDATE: I plan on calling Microsoft today to determine whether or not I can legally use the product key we purchased. When I get an answer, I'll post it here.
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The Microsoft CSR said it's fine, since it's part of an agreement with an academic institution. I guess it's different for corporate volume licensing.
 
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