Forum Discussion
Sharing one Microsoft account with Microsoft 365 Family. Simple but illegal?
Hello everybody,
I have two friends (spouse) with an active Microsoft 365 Family subscription.
Thus they could have separate accounts, they want to have everything in common "as before" (with an on premises Microsoft Office and simple POP3 email accounts).
One Windows 10 account, shared Dropbox, two email addresses (alias in this case) in the same Outlook and so on... on one PC, one laptop, two smartphones.
The easiest would be to share a Microsoft account.
As a first name I could simply set "Oliva and Michael".
So basically everything should work fine - right?
Even if they use the devices at the same time?
But... in terms of licensing, strictly speaking, that is not allowed - right?
Or at least in the gray area since they have enough licenses (6 in total) due to the "Family" license.
Has someone successfully run such a constellation?
Thank you,
greetings
Martin
Hi mfessler,
technically it is possible as one license allows for using 5 devices of the same type (i.e. PCs, smartphones, tablets).
However, from a licensing perspective, only one person is allowed to use the service/software at a time on each device (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/OfficeinMicrosoft365/Family/Useterms_Retail_OfficeinMicrosoft365_Family_English.htm, chapter 1a (iv)).
Moreover, the following chapter denies using one device to indirectly enabling multiple users to use the software:
d.Multi-Use Scenarios.
(ii)Multiple or pooled connections. You may not use hardware or software to multiplex or pool connections, or otherwise allow multiple users or multiple devices to access or use the software indirectly through a device.
However, I am wondering why Microsoft restricts usage in such a way as this is a common scenario in most households from my point of view.
