macropod...thanks for researching it. I have already contacted the seller through Amazon and asked that he explain all of this and provide acceptable evidence that this is a legal copy. He replied that he tries his best to assure that customers are satisfied and have a functional copy of the software, and that if I'm not satisfied, he will refund my money - no response regarding legal or not. I have also contacted Amazon customer service and explained the situation and they were surprisingly prompt and helpful. Since they are the middle man with emails between seller and buyer, they saw the exchange between the seller and I and were satisfied that I had recourse to a refund if I chose to take that option, but if I had any problem, they would enter into the situation and enforce their guarantee.

I have decided that a fully functional copy is not enough if it is not legal, so will request a refund and see how that goes. Hopefully, if the seller drags his feet, Amazon will do something to enforce it.

Thanks again for your help. I guess it's another of those "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't". But this one was not so far out as to be unbelievable. Should have gone with my initial gut feel and passed.

I'll post back when it's all resolved.

Optiker

I, too, would be less than satisfied. Hopefully Amazon will shut down the seller's account. Quite apart from any legality & morality issues, users of such products always run the risk that MS (who, after all, could work out what product keys they've actually issued) will retrospectively invalidate any they haven't issued, regardless of whether they conform to the required algorithm. Bring on that day, I say! There'd soon be a stink if these keygen people started using valid keys owned by legit users...

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]