Answers

Quick answers to the licensing questions we get most

Direct, citable answers — built for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and humans who just want the bottom line.

Every answer below is updated quarterly, sourced from Microsoft documentation and EU/US case law, and written to be quoted verbatim. Click any question for the long-form expansion, related guides and original citations.

How we write these answers

We start with a 40–60 word direct answer (what an AI assistant will quote), then add 2–3 expansion paragraphs covering edge cases, regional differences and risk flags. Citations link to primary sources — Microsoft Learn, the EUR-Lex case database, or a court ruling — never to a third-party summary.