This is a lesson one reader has recently learned the hard way. "I recently purchased Windows 2003 Server OEM, along with the requisite hardware for a server I was building as part of a consulting gig with a local business," the reader wrote. "When I went to install the Windows server software I realized that it was missing the COA, which includes the product activation key. To make a long story short, I'm out of luck. I can't get the software installed and Microsoft CAN'T help me."

Of course, when the reader first called Microsoft about his missing COA, their first reaction was to suspect him or his reseller of piracy. "They were very suspicious, but the CD was perfect," the reader writes. "It had all the holograms in the right place and all the Microsoft numbers, etc. I suffered through the process of signing an affidavit to have a replacement COA sent to me. And as part of the affidavit process some validation was required from my reseller as well. So Microsoft has verified the authenticity of my purchased product and that it is not pirated."

Just as aside, I should mention here that such scrutiny is not a surprise, because Microsoft takes its COAs very seriously. So seriously, in fact, it prevailed upon Congress and President Bush last year to enact a law -- the Anti-Counterfeiting Amendments Act - that makes trafficking in standalone COAs a crime. Microsoft feels that too many sticky fingers in the distribution channel are ripping authentic Microsoft COAs off the boxes and selling them to software counterfeiters. So even having an authentic Certificate of Authenticity doesn't necessarily mean you're not a pirate, at least as far as Microsoft is concerned.

At any rate, the reader was able to convince Microsoft that his copy of Windows 2003 was genuine, but that hardly meant his problems were over. "They gave me product key after product key verbally over the phone while I tried them -- nothing worked," the reader wrote. "I received a new COA with a product key, but of course that key doesn't work either. The result of my endless class with Microsoft spanning months is that they can't solve this. After replacement COA and its product key still didn't work, Microsoft said they can no longer help me and that they cannot send a replacement media either."

But shouldn't any clean product key have been able to activate his copy? "You would think so," agrees the reader. "But from my conversations with Microsoft, the companies under the volume licensing umbrella are the ones who create the Product Keys for the copies they sell -- not Microsoft. So Microsoft can't even come up with keys that will work with an OEM CD. And not all OEMs are treated equally. They turn over all licensing control to their major OEMs like HP, Dell, etc. So if a consumer has a licensing issue with his OEM software that came with his Dell computer, then he contacts Dell and not Microsoft--who can't help a Dell customer. But buy an OEM version from a small-time dealer and you have nowhere to turn. I think I build a better server than Dell, Compaq, etc., but my next server will probably be from one of those companies just because of their OEM agreement with Microsoft."

What the reader is supposed to do now, as well as what happened to his original COA, remain a mystery. If anyone at Microsoft wants to look into what wrong in this case, the reader is more than willing for them to do so - his case number is SRX050122604690. But for him the bigger mystery in the way Microsoft has handled his case is why it has so little grip on its own licensing process.

"It seems to me that Microsoft's licensing and product activation process has turned into a beast they can no longer control," the reader wrote. "How can they sell a product that they can't activate retroactively? If any network admins who build their own custom servers have activation problems, are they going to be out of luck as well? And to think this was all in an effort to replace a NetWare box."