Well, you knew it was coming.
With the economy being so bad, software corporations have to find new ways to offer their products. Microsoft as always, is on the cutting edge. For the past few years, Microsoft has been conducting experiments in various countries as to how and whether “renting” software could become a viable business model. The answer seemingly must have been yes, since Microsoft quietly added rental SKUs, as of January 1, to the list of license types available to customers worldwide. Making software available under a rental license shows that Microsoft sees this as something that small companies or even big ones might want to do.