Guess What, You Don’t Own That Software You Bought

[thundley4]

A federal appeals court said Friday that software makers can use shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses to forbid the transfer or resale of their wares, an apparent gutting of the so-called first-sale doctrine.

The first-sale doctrine is an affirmative defense to copyright infringement that allows legitimate owners of copies of copyrighted works to resell those copies. That defense, the court said, is “unavailable to those who are only licensed to use their copies of copyrighted works.” (.pdf)

The 3-0 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, if it stands, means copyright owners may prohibit the resale of their wares by inserting clauses in their sales agreements.

“The terms of the software license in the case are not very different from the terms of most software licensing. So I think it’s safe to say that most people don’t own their software,” said Greg Beck, the defense attorney in the case who represented an eBay seller sued by Autodesk. “The other ramification, there is no reason a similar license could not be put into the cover of a book. It wouldn’t be difficult for everybody to implement this.”

Beck said he will ask the San Francisco-based appeals court to rehear the case with 11 judges.

The Software & Information Industry Association, whose members include Google, Adobe, McAfee, Oracle and dozens of others, urged the court to rule as it did. The Motion Picture Association of America also sided with Autodesk.



Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/first-sale-doctrine/#ixzz0zYikSIth

This isn't good. It could put a huge crimp in people selling old DVDs and CDs along with software.

[Evil_Conservative]

That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
 

[Airwolf]

Its the 9th circut. It might get over turned on Appeal considering how much money is involved in reselling old DVDs and CDs online at at retail outlets.

[MrsSmith]

I was buying used games for my grandson a couple months ago for his new Gamecube.  I said something to the store owner about PC games...and in this store with maybe a million used games, he shows me his shelf of PC games...there were a couple dozen.  It's not legal to resell most of them...which is why he had so few.  He then asked me to recall how many video games compared to PC games I see in my local Wal-Mart...and how many I've purchased of each.  BECAUSE they can't be resold, the PC video game industry is not doing at all the level of business the rest of the industry does.  Over protection is probably not the smartest thing software writers can demand...ditto everyone else...

[ConservativeJoeG]

I'm patiently waiting until this clause is included on new car contracts.  Wouldn't that be fun?

[Texacon]

I'm patiently waiting until this clause is included on new car contracts.  Wouldn't that be fun?

I don't know about the whole car but it does make you stop and think about the cars with built in GPS that uses a DVD.  How is that supposed to work?  Or even the software that runs a lot of the vehicle now days.

KC

[thundley4]

I don't know about the whole car but it does make you stop and think about the cars with built in GPS that uses a DVD.  How is that supposed to work?  Or even the software that runs a lot of the vehicle now days.

KC

I remember hearing that auto repair shops were fighting the manufactures for the rights to access the onboard computers of newer cars.