Can MS disable/deactivate products?

[ubersonic]

Hey, last weekend I was helping out a friend who owns a small business with some of his IT stuff as he only has basic computer skills and the company he was paying to take care of his network have disappeared overnight (always a good sign lol). It appears that while his server is fully licensed (probably only because it came with one) they have it running a copy of SQL Standard which I'm fairly sure is using a MSDN or volume licensing key, there's no way he can afford to buy a legit copy of SQL Standard which leaves him in quite a tricky situation.

Anyway now I've explained that, to the point. What are the chances that MS will disable/invalidate this copy of SQL by remote? Is that something that even happens?

Thanks.

 

[stoofa]

If a key becomes compromised to the point where lots of installations are using it, then Microsoft can ban it - this has happened in the past with leaked Windows 7 & Windows 10 Dell keys.
At some point in the future Windows will call home, it's product key will be checked and if on the banned list the copy will be deactivated.
Applications are different as they don't call home as such - the OS does the calling home, but the app probably needs nothing from Microsoft and Microsoft needs nothing from it.
If however it is an MSDN code and it has become massively compromised then yes - it could be remotely deactivated.

A more serious issue however is that as a business it is very important to remain licence legal.
A home user is very unlikely to find themselves in the dock for using illegal software (one of the many excuses the cool kids use for pirating). A business however can far more easily find itself in trouble. Fines can start quite high, it isn't just a matter of paying up for the missing license.
If he needs something SQL and cannot afford the license for the software he is using, then he should switch to one of the free alternatives sooner rather than later.