Buying used windows license. How can I tell if they are still active?

Posted by muhan on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by muhan
Published on 2010-04-14T00:44:32Z Indexed on 2010/04/14 0:53 UTC
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Windows

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licenses

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virtualization

I want to buy used copies of Windows Full Retail Version, (XP, Vista, 7) so we can install our PC application on customers Macs using something like Vmware fusion.

If we do buy these licenses, how can we tell they are legit and not being used anymore? Will it tell us when we try to activate them? Are we liable if they are being used at the same time as the original owner?

Any other pitfalls to this strategy? Thanks in advance.

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