The key difference between the "I moved it" and "I copied it" is with the "I moved it" , the Universal Unique ID (UUID) of the VM is kept the same.
For a Windows OS licence that require activation, having a different UUID would likely mean reactivation of the licence or re-key of the Windows licence key would be required as the installed OS inside the VM sees it as "new hardware" (i.e. it as if OS licence key is applied to a different machine).
Other software might also depend on UUID for licencing or some combination of other unique parameters such as Ethernet MAC address.
The UUID of the VM is in the vmx configuration file of the VM.
uuid.bios = "some 32 hexadecimal digit string"