Court smacks Autodesk, affirms right to sell used software
By Timothy B. Lee | Published: May 23, 2008 – 12:21PM CT
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If Jones’s ruling is upheld on appeal, it will have important consequences for the software industry, where the legal fiction that software is merely licensed is widely employed. In addition to discouraging the market for used software, software firms have also attempted to use the “licensed, not sold” theory to enforce restrictions on reverse engineering that would otherwise be fair use under copyright law. If software is sold, rather than licensed, then no license is required to install and use the software, and the terms of shrink-wrap licenses may not be legally binding.
The Autodesk case is not the only case regarding the first sale doctrine working its way through the courts. Another lawsuit filed last summer concerns another eBay seller who sells used promo CDs. Like Vernor, the plaintiff in that case faced repeated DMCA takedown notices and sued to vindicate his right to sell used merchandise online. EFF is representing the plaintiff in that case, and McSherry tells Ars that while there are important differences between the cases, the opinion bodes well for EFF’s case because “it affirms that copyright owners can’t use license restrictions to strip away first sale rights.”
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About time this fictional non-sense was brought to a halt.
This will be a boon, and boom to software developers and users in general.
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Posted by reinkefj 
Reinke Faces Life 