What are the odds this is legal?

[voidp]

I just ran across this on eBay: VMware Workstation 14 Pro for Window 1Pc LIFETIME...

​I'm guessing that a key generator has been created.  I've seen lots of vmware Workstation key generators over the years and it's always bothered me that vmware hasn't taken greater steps to enforce legitimate licensing — but without becoming onerous and requiring activation.  Surely vmware can do better.  I always bite my thumb a little bit when it's time to buy an upgrade license knowing that many people are running for free.

[jasnyder]

I would say 0% it's legal based on the price (99.98% discount off list).  It's not like 200 of these license keys fell off the back of a truck.  Or someone had an overstock of license keys in a spreadsheet somewhere that they couldn't let sit in the warehouse any longer.

It doesn't make any sense to discount it that much.  People buying it have to know it's not legit.

I'm not sure how eBay doesn't shut it down, but I guess it's on VMware to complain to them.  In any case, you would think they could apply an algorithm to spot brand new digital only delivery of the current version of a piece of software for 99%+ discount and go ahead and make the decision on that to shut it down.  Better safe than sorry I would say.

[bluefirestorm]

Based on the universal VMware EULA https://www.vmware.com/download/eula/universal_eula.html ​, licenses are not transferable (see section 2.1). There are legal ways to transfer licenses but certainly putting it up on sale on eBay is not one of them (see section 12.1 of the EULA).

So even if the key is legitimate, reselling the key violates many different terms of the EULA which in turns voids the license.

[voidp]

It's worse than I thought.  By searching eBay for "vmware 14" and sorting by minimum price you'll see scores of sellers doing the same thing.  Some are even selling 'licenses' with fully configured virtual machines running Windows 10, Microsoft Office, etc.

I'm always concerned that vmware will shutter Workstation over declining revenues.  All this just adds to that worry.

[voidp]

I tried reporting this to eBay but their 'system' is 'multiple choice' and doesn't have a clearly defined category for licensing terms or a way to enter comments.  I took a shot at reporting a violation per their terms against 'digital downloads'.  I'm not holding my breath.

[Mikero · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

It isn't legal. We do have an affiliate program but that just redirects back to our eStore with a referral tag.

Our legal team goes out and issues takedown notices for stuff like this, but we don't always catch everything as soon as it comes up.

I agree we could do better with respect to licensing management, the feedback is well received.

Thanks for checking, I'm having our legal team investigate.