> If the manufacturer stops making something, you can't buy it any more.

Incorrect.  Take a car that hasn't been in production for the last 10 
years to a garage and ask for a new part (specific to that car) - 
they'll likely have a new one in stock somewhere.  Lots of companies 
specifically buy up lots of parts before production stops, exactly to be 
able to supply them to people at a later date.

I imagine lots of shops bought a load of XP licenses just before MS 
stopped supplying it, some might have even bought enough to last a 
couple of years, and so still have some to sell today.  (Or maybe some 
just overestimated how many XP licenses they would sell).  It doesn't 
seem that implausible to suggest that every XP you see for sale is illegal.

> (At least, not new.)

Does "not new" even make sense for a software license, are you worried 
that the last few digits of the license code might start to wear away? :-)

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