I think there is a distinction that can be made between the software and the
key. In other words, once the application is installed there is generally no
further requirement for the key unless it needs to be reinstalled or moved
while the license is still in effect, resulting in two possibilities. First,
if the software is not time-limited, the keys could be kept for the life of
the application. An example of this is most Microsoft desktop software. You
can still use Office 97 if you have it, and are willing to use such an old
application and the potential security and stability issues that have been
corrected in subsequent releases. You wouldn't need the license so long as
that installation remained extant; but you'd want to keep it in case you
needed to install to a different machine.
Second, if the application is time-limited, the requirement to keep the key
would be for the duration of the license; once the license expires, it is of
no further value. I don't have a ready example of this but when I worked at
IMR, our service bureau licenses were like this. The day after the license
expired, the software stopped working until the customer got a new license.
The actual license key might remain the same but it would be reactivated in
our licensing system.

Were it me, to try to keep it simple, I'd probably mark the retention as the
lifetime of the system, perhaps plus a single year (though I don't think
that would really be necessary).

Clear as mud? :)
-- 
Regards,

Jesse Wilkins
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blog: http://informata.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins

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