Software from Craigslist?

Original packaging, official disks and license key usually on a card with a seal or a booklet. You should be able to open the packaging and install it right there. Make sure you have an internet connection so it verifies.

I have several programs for creatives available from corporate volume licenses.

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Also this is NOT kosher. The person is using a license paid for by his/her company and giving it to you. You will not get official disks for this, probably a copy.

Frankly, go buy a legit copy. If you can't afford it right now, download Libra Office and use that until you can or you find it on sale.

Shrink wrap or don't buy

Medievalist said:

Shrink wrap or don't buy

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Ibid the above.

If the shrink wrap is missing, who knows what you are buy hidden deep within the system.

Seriously, $60 is not that unreasonable. I have seen it going for more...

What they said. Also, unless you absolutely need 100% MS Office compatibility, LibreOffice or iWork's Pages work just fine.

Aside from the ethics and the absence of legality regarding buying even "used" software when the original licensee no longer has the software installed--(many licenses actually prohibit resale even if you uninstall)--Since about 2004 Microsoft programs phone home, over any open network connection, and can be bricked.

Buy legal, or use an alternative.

Maryn, "bricked" in the sense of computers and electronics and such just means "made inoperable."

For example: years ago, one of my brothers bought a desktop PC from a guy at his workplace. When my brother connected it to the Internet here at home, Microsoft's verification software fired up to see if the copy of Windows on the hard drive was legit or not.

It wasn't, so my brother couldn't get into Windows. Microsoft "bricked" it, so the PC started to boot into Windows, but stopped and displayed an error message about the OS being an illegal copy. He had to either install a legit copy or find a different operating system to use. Either way, he wasn't getting into the copy the coworker had illegally installed on multiple computers.

P.S. My brother had no idea the guy had installed Windows on multiple computers like that. If he'd even suspected this, he would have either not bought the computer or made the guy knock a good bit of money off the asking price, as my brother would have had to go buy Windows for himself.

Like the others said, go legit.

You can get a rebate from Microsoft if you download the application (i.e. by buying just an activation key) rather than buy a CD box from a retailer. The price difference is quite attractive for Office.

-cb

I wouldn't buy a doormat on Craigslist.

Maryn said:

"...can be bricked" means?

Maryn, old dog, new tricks

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It refers to rendering a device like a phone inoperable by sending instructions to the firmware chips inside the device to shut down. This is done by companies who make the device in cases of illegal use or use they find violates the license. This happens to Kndles, and pretty much every kind of cell phone ever made.

In the case of software, a publisher can activate code embedded in the application that tells the application not to run.

Medievalist said:

Shrink wrap or don't buy

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I wouldn't even trust that on Craigslist. I'm sure there are people who are recreating original packaging.

Shrink wrapped doesn't necessarily mean new or legal. Shrink wrapping is easy to do, and a lot of people make very good money by shrink wrapping old, used, or even nonexistent software, and selling it as new. Never mind shrink wrapped software that was shoplifted. If it sounds too good to be true. . .

Now, if ethics don't get in your way, the cheapest way to buy MS Office is to have a college student buy it for you. Most universities sell it to students for under thirty-five bucks.

Jamesaritchie said:

Now, if ethics don't get in your way. . . .

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Those damned ethics! They haven't made me any less snarky nor put a stop to girl-watching while claiming it's "people" watching for character research, but it has kept me poor and pretty much welcome on campuses.