Is selling used microsoft office software legal?

Looking through my blog’s web statistics I noticed the other day a Google search result that brought someone to the “Get Legal. Get OpenOffice.org.” campaign page on my blog. This is the right answer I think for the question posed by this visitor to the Google search engine.

The exact question was: “Is selling used Microsoft office software legal ?”.

Well, Is it legal to sell used copies of Microsoft software ?
Microsoft licenses forbid selling copies of their software, especially after upgrading (forced or not), like in the situation described in my previous article. They will tell you that if you upgraded and payed less than for a normal license, you have not given up your previous license and copy of software, but rather you got something better for less money.

If you gave up using Microsoft software and want to dispose off the old licenses and media copies, I know you would like your money back. As far as I know you cannot sell them. It is anyway safer not to.

Still, you have a solution to get your money back:
You can sell copies of OpenOffice.org office suite and also of Linux and some many other open source programs and earn the money that Microsoft will never give you back. Many open source licenses permit it. Yes, it is legal to sell copies of the free office suite OpenOffice.org. There are many people still on phone line connections to the Internet who cannot afford downloading the whole office suite. You can help them this way. Even if you charge 1 extra cent above the price of the CD media.

One condition from OpenOffice.org license is that you also give the user a copy of the license and link back to the project’s website. Many other questions are answered on the OpenOffice.org Distribution Project pages.

GETTING BACK TO THE ORIGINAL QUESTION
I am trying to compile below the answers I find to the initial question:
1. OEM licensed software: generally speaking, a piece of software licensed for a certain hardware equipment, has the license tied to that hardware. This means you cannot sell or otherwise copy, transfer, give the software license without the hardware itself.

2. Software upgrade: the answers I found so far state that UPGRADING means keeping the same old license and that the old installation kits you received are voided of any license. Even if you have received a new serial number with the upgraded software. You cannot sell, give, donate, etc.. the old software for which you have purchased an upgrade.

I am trying to find answers for the rest of the possible scenarios and will update here asap.
BEWARE: The best way of finding out is still reading the entire license that came with your copy of the software. If you still cannot find the answer, call the toll free phone lines for support from Microsoft. It’s a fact that a license text may vary from one version of the software to another, so this is why you should first read the license you got for your particular case.