Ccamerongray, you make some good points. Still, I respectfully disagree.
Overhell says he bought the product believing it was legal. I have no resewn to think that he would knowingly but a prate product. But I can believe that a big company will do anything to promotes its own interests. I think MS puts mud in the water to cause confusion and intimidate end-users.
My position has been that Microsoft has been long misleading us all with their strange set of rules that benefit them and snot the end-user. IMO, Microsoft has tolerated piracy to gain more market share for a proprietary product. After you have been using the bogus version, they then tell you they just found out it was operated and you have to pay for it. How do we know that MS was not promoting piracy to assertive its software?
The technology to stop pirate circulation existed back in 1995 when MS released Windows 95. Yet MS pretended it was hard to catch the pirates or to stop them from making bogus copies. Many companies did have tools that stopped the pirates cold. But MS looked away as it such technology did not exist.
An yes, somebody complains to Google to remove some of the listings. Also, eBay has placed some warnings about pirate software. Of course, eBay, like other huge companies, wants to protect themselves and maintain a market position.
If you are a legal owner of a MS product and you wish to sell it, you will find resistance. I have had my listings pulled off of eBay because MS, or somebody who represents them, complained. Common law is that you can sell anything that you buy it is is a tangible article. It is also common that you can not counterfeit something and sell it. something.
Or to put it another way, I shed no teases for Microsoft.
Overhll, if you are still there, go ahead and use the Microsoft product. If it is not legit it is the responsibility of MS to interrogative the issue. They have resources far beyond what we individual users have.