It could be that the software that allegedly won't work with other stuff (it's just "text" academic at that if it's worrying about notes and stuff; it shouldn't be word processor dependent, none of the other ones are) made them sign it or some such combination like that.

It's not like one can make a bootleg copy of the Word software anymore either from another machine. Until I moved two years ago, I still had WordPerfect 4.2, 5-1/2" floppy disks, LOL.