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Federal Court Says First-Sale Doctrine Covers Software, Too
New10k writes "The US District Court in Seattle has rejected Autodesk's myriad arguments regarding its software licenses and found in favor of eBay seller Timothy S. Vernor. The ruling started by ruling that Vernor was within his rights to resell copies of AutoCAD Release 14 he got in an auction. Once the court settled the legitimacy of reselling, it used that ruling as a lens to dismiss all of Autodesk's various claims. More than once the court described Autodesk's arguments as 'specious' and 'conflicted.'" Autodesk managed to have Vernor's eBay account pulled, after he listed for sale copies of AutoCad 14. He sued Autodesk in response.
Can autodesk skirt this by making its software connect to an autodesk server and validate the presence of a (non transferrable) user account?
Because that is exactly what World of Warcraft (and all MMO's, for that matter) does.
Autodesk would then give the software away for free, but sell the user accounts for whatever they want.
It's about the courts re clarified this for software. When you buy a physical product, you should have the right to sell it.
What happens now with all the authentication and tying copies of software to the hardware it's first installed on such as Windows XP/Vista?
You have a right to sell your copy, but effectively you can't because it's been tied to your hardware.
How many of you have found the actual license agreement is on the media stored in the packet? So in order to read the agreement, you have to open the packet.
The ruling is important because it calls into question the whole concept of a Non Transferable license. The court found that âoefirst saleâ doctrine of copyright law did apply. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine
If this hold, it will largely eliminate the non-transferable license in software.
And why shouldn't it? As long as the original owner retains no copy, selling an unused license simply keeps that copy under maintenance (maintenance charges frequently exceed sales revenue) and keeps the money flowing to the authors.
Nontransferable licenses are usually attempted by companies that have some sort of a near monopoly lock, so that not only do they gain from a new sale, they also gain from maintenance charges. If there are multiple vendors of equivalent software you really can't get away with nontransferable clauses.
As a software author, I'd gladly accept continued maintenance fees instead of new sales revenue. If my customers know that unused licenses have residual value when their projects are completed its good for me, and good for them. They buy extra licenses to handle the surge effort of development, and retain a few licenses for maintenance.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Wow, that guy has some rocks. In the second link, you find out he sues them without a lawyer. That's not an easy thing to do in a US District Court.
So why should people buy my video at $80 if they can get it for next to nothing on the web and most likely just burn their own copy? That's First-Sale Doctrine and it can also suck for the little guy. Contact the video rental site. Send them an 'updated', Hi-Def version of your tutorial. Include on this a number of unobtrusive ads for your product, and maybe throw in a few free support calls (then start charging...).
(I know nothing about boat building, but...) If building boats takes more than 5 weeks, or is slightly difficult, you'll have successfully adapted your business model to (cue scary-deep voice over) 'A Business Model For The Digital Age'.
Kerching!
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
You give the software away for free, but you charge a free for a license key (eg. Microsoft) that unlocks various features of the software. For potential customers, you provide edit and load functionality. For students, you allow all the edit, load and save features, but any printed files have a watermark copyright. For professional users, you provide all features.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I think they do. My sister used to work at a video rental store and I saw the catalog they used to order VHS tapes from. They were easily 4 to 5 times as expencive as buying it from walmart or what have you. This also led to fun times when someone would leave a video in their hot car in Florida and were shocked when told how much it was to replace the tape.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
drinkypoo the human dictionary says: the word for features-limited-until-paid shareware is crippleware. It's not very P.C., but it is very descriptive. Fight crippleware: use Free Software! (I understand some of you out there make a living on Shareware. Good for you! I hope when you abandon the software you'll Open the Source.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The first video store I ever visited did this. You purchased the Tape for the retail price (about$80) and returned it for a refund. They deducted $5 for each day you had the tape. If you needed a VCR they would rent one to you for $10 per day plus a $300 deposit.