Your motives are good. There may be other solutions. MS Access is not the
only relational database. It all depends on the level that they need. There
is Kexi which is part of KOffice that is billed as MS Access for Linux. It
is even mentioned in Wikipedia in ths context. There is also OpenOffice
Base. And then there is MySQL which is very big and powerful. Even Microsoft
uses it or so I have heard.

As for the VM hypothetical issue, if they have a licensed copy of Windows
then it is not likely that MS would litigate a paying customer. It sounds
insane to think that they would. If things were done on the QT then it need
not be a limitation. However, if the organisation in question is a church or
some other ethical body then it should be strict in the interpretation, IMO,
as they want to be beyond reproach.

MS is making it difficult for their own reasons. It is not just about
selling Windows, but in controlling how it is used. VMs can be cloned and
moved around and MS wants it on a physical machine to prevent this, sort of
like DRM. They may be cutting off their nose to spite their face. Now that
XP is defunct from a sales point of view they could be giving new life to it
and making old machines work beyond their normal lifespan. However, that is
not the game plan. MS wants to sell new copies of Windows 7 and sell new
computers with it on it. It is an obvious case of putting their interest
ahead of the user.

I would look into Kexi, Base and MySQL first. You can also run MS Access
with Wine or Crossover Office I believe.

See:
www.linuxquestions.org/.../Moving_M\
S_Access_Data_to_Linux
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7176