622

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48806122

A license verification certificate expires and when it expires, Microsoft Office for Mac assumes it's unlicensed even if it has been fully paid for.

So, any idiot who paid for Office 2019 for Mac "perpetual" will lose access to it next month.

The same will happen with Office 2021 and Office 2024 in the future.

Pirates are unaffected, only who paid for the product gets punished

Good job 👍🏻

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] fodor@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 hour ago

If people are buying such software on their own dime, they're getting played. Happens once, OK you didn't know it was a con job. Happens twice, you're a fool...

But if it's on your company's dime, meh, not your problem.

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 10 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Absolutely fair points but I think it should be illegal to sell a “perpetual” license - perpetual means everlasting - and then it turns out to not be perpetual

They should be forced to honor the perpetual contracts

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

I was about to purchase some legitimate licenses for MS products when this was first announced.

saved myself the money and trouble and just pirated it.

fuck em

[-] magnue@lemmy.world 37 points 11 hours ago
[-] poopkins@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

It's an appeal directly to the thriving community of intellectual property pirates here on Lemmy in order to make the post directly to the front page.

[-] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Notice that neither of you have refuted the veracity of the headline claim.

[-] PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 13 points 11 hours ago

It can sometimes be annoying when news communities require posts to use an article's original headline, but it definitely makes sense at times.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

Like this time

[-] WrathEnchanter@europe.pub 7 points 11 hours ago

You think so? I only see an acurate representation oft reality

[-] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago
[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 73 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Rossman posted a video a while ago about how Microsoft updated their site without noting they updated it to gaslight their customers into thinking it's always said that.

There's a reason these companies are trying to kill the archive sites, it lets people call them on their bullshit.

Edit: YouTube source

[-] Dvixen@lemmy.world 21 points 13 hours ago

Not surprised in the least. It's all about maintaining incoming cash flow.

They cancelled my Win11 (from purchased Win10 eligible upgrade) key earlier this year when I replaced a failed motherboard.

Happy to be free of their ecosystem. Should have jumped free long ago.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 points 7 hours ago

Welcome to the other side. Breathe the free air again

[-] Dvixen@lemmy.world 1 points 42 minutes ago

Thanks! Still having some problems with sound popping, but had that under Windows. >.<

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 26 minutes ago* (last edited 25 minutes ago)

Which distro? I had a similar issue

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 26 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I'm not sure I'm cool with calling people 'idiots' in this scenario. We don't blame the victims of con men when they're stolen from, and this is the same thing, just on a bigger scale.

That said, here is the obligatory linking to LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

It's free and a better choice.

[-] architect 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

We need to quit focusing on stuff like this. If somebody calls you a fucking idiot so fucking what?

And we do blame the victims constantly. The people that blame the victims do nothing but fucking win.

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

And some of us ARE idiots, no need to throw us under the bus, it’s still wrong to take advantage of stupid people

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Zorcron@lemmy.zip 15 points 14 hours ago

OOP’s comment on the original post that the cross-poster should have shared:

Disclaimer: I wrote "idiot" to describe someone who paid for the product not because they're actually idiots, but it's because Microsoft is treating them like that: their official solution on the website is "simply subscribe to the latest and greatest or buy a new "perpetual" license to office 2024 to continue using what you paid for"

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

That’s not how words work

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 54 points 18 hours ago
[-] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 16 hours ago

Since the OP specifies Mac users, as a Mac user, I find iWork perfectly serviceable. I think it's a bit controversial with its "Ribbon" on the right rather than the top, though it kind of makes sense. I don't love iWork (Writer, Numbers, and Keynote), but they are good and they come with Macs (or at the very least are free in the App Store).

I have tried LibreOffice recently, and I didn't care for it. But I am glad that such a robust free office suite is available on Windows. I believe some Linux distros ship with it, too. If I didn't have iWork, I'd probably just use LibreOffice. It's not terrible, I just have a better choice.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] victorz@lemmy.world 153 points 20 hours ago

Idiots?

I'm not one of them, but what makes them idiots? Seems kind of uncalled for.

[-] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 153 points 20 hours ago

It just wouldn’t be a lemmy post without a smug sense of superiority.

[-] mspencer712@programming.dev 15 points 16 hours ago

Agreed. I don’t know if this is the term for it, but I’ve been thinking of all this as “signaling disrespect,” a deliberate attempt to make people think of their peers as lesser, as other.

I feel like either people have been conditioned to do this online all the time for some reason, or maybe there’s some directed attack against civility. I don’t know. But I refuse to let myself be affected by it. I won’t hate people.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (23 replies)
[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 96 points 20 hours ago

Not sure why they’re idiots, trying to go the non-sub option is smart, doesn’t vote for subs. Microsoft is the asshole here.

[-] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 16 hours ago

Not sure why OP is sitting here tanking these hits, but I don't think OP meant to call people who bought perpetual licenses to Office idiots. I think they're saying that Microsoft thinks they're idiots. Still, OP should have clarified that or at least answered at least one person who asked.

[-] wols@lemmy.zip 10 points 14 hours ago

Because it's a repost.
If you go to the original, OP actually has the top comment explaining exactly that: "idiots" refers to MS treating their customers as such, not a judgement by OP.

[-] Epzillon@lemmy.world 46 points 18 hours ago

Victim-blaming is the real stupidity here. Microsoft harasses its customers (again) and now the customers are the idiots?

This is the same type of propaganda Nvidia is trying to push. Jensen Huang saying "people should have planned better, the rising prices of hardware was imminent" is the exact same tactic of being the cause of the problem and still putting the blame of everyone else.

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 21 points 16 hours ago

Victim blaming is definitely how you win people to your side... Dumbass

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] melfie@lemmy.zip 14 points 15 hours ago

Not even worth pirating when there are better open source alternatives.

[-] bhamlin@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago
[-] username123@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 hours ago
[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I also plunder this mans booty 😏

[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 62 points 19 hours ago

I'd argue trying to avoid yet another subscription by paying upfront was an honest and good faith strategy. The problem was assuming Microsoft also acts in good faith, and wouldn't just take the money and run like they have just 7 years in.

Honestly for things like this, I would struggle to be convinced that these folks aren't entirely within their right to take back what they already bought in good faith by pirating it.

[-] Mwa 17 points 16 hours ago

classic Micro$lop

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
622 points (90.3% liked)

Technology

85515 readers
4236 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS