No, that isn't true. In fact, Vista did away with asking for verification.
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Clean-install-using-Windows-Vista-Upgrade-t147142.html
And we all know that with Vista, at least, Microsoft didn't trust a single user--not even inside their own campus.
So you were wrong about Vista upgrade needing an old license key, hmm, kind of makes us wonder what else you are wrong about.
