In reply to a post by TLM:

there's no way of knowing whether it would automatically update or not

The licence key for an unused out-of-date Norton (but not too ancient, say 2007 onwards) will always activate a newer installed version. Once activated, Norton itself will offer and provide its latest version as an update.

That is (unsurprisingly) not well-publicised, and there's no guarantee how long it will continue to be true, either. Presumably, at some point, the versions will have got too divergent to be upwardly compatible, OR they'll just withdraw support for it - why would they want people still to be able to buy six- or seven- year old software for a pittance, but be able to upgrade for free to the latest version? I'm budget conscious, but not enough to deliberately buy out-of-date software. Not when it comes to security, anyway. If it was just a game or something, I wouldn't care if it wasn't the latest, all-singing, all-dancing version, and there was no guaranteed upgrade path.

In reply to a post by TLM:

I'm budget conscious, but not enough to deliberately buy out-of-date software.

You are not buying the s/w but just the licence key. There is no upwardly compatibility of s/w required.

Be skeptical but this has worked since 2006 at least. Do you really think that Norton has not realised the possibility for over 7 years?

I have to admit that you do have one point. The purchased old version / product key may have been stolen resulting in : "Revoked Product Key: Your product key has been canceled and is no longer valid".

However in all the years I have bought product keys this way, including stockpiling for the future, I have never had one revoked.

I don't think it's that they haven't realised the possibility. It's just that it doesn't come with any promises, and they could decide to close the door on it at any time - as soon as they decide there are too few users of legacy versions to be worth pandering to any more, OR they decide they're losing too much money by honouring ancient keys, and need to "encourage" purchase of up-to-date versions.

It doesn't much matter whether you're buying the actual software or not. I'm sure they have a system for keeping track of which keys were issued with which versions, and it would be a simple matter to decide that six- or seven-year old keys aren't going to be accepted any more.

In response to your other post, I'm sure stolen keys are not an issue if you go to a reputable retailer like Tesco (but a lot of people probably said that about horsemeat! ) If you go to eBay, who knows?

I'm prepared to take that chance. At the mo' they will allow any in-licence 2005 onwards version to upgrade free to latest, see Support Policy. If push comes to shove I'll just start buying 2010 onwards licences currently; they are not that much dearer, if at all, and still cheaper than from Norton itself.

W.r.t. eBay: same goes for any product. Caveat Emptor!