Types of Online Services Information in the Product List

While the bulk of online services licensing rules are contained in the quarterly published Online Service Terms (OST) and its predecessor, the Online Services Use Rights (OLSUR), Microsoft’s monthly Product List also contains some key online service—related information.

Purchase rules. The Product List includes rules such as whether purchases of a particular online service subscription SKU are applicable toward a contract’s organization-wide purchase requirements, whether Enterprise Agreement customers can buy particular subscription SKUs through the annual True-Up process or must submit new purchases monthly, and whether a customer may reduce the number of subscriptions during the course of a volume licensing contract. It also identifies subscription options (such as Add-on licenses) that require, as a prerequisite, prior purchases of specific on-premises licenses with Software Assurance.

Service-specific use rights. In part because the Product List is updated monthly rather than quarterly like the OST (and Product Use Rights), it tends to be the repository for various types of miscellaneous information, such as special online service—specific use rights. For example, it defines scenarios where Office 365 ProPlus customers are permitted to install the suite using traditional Office Professional Plus volume license media, and scenarios where subscribers to online services (such as Lync Online) get free use of related on-premises software.