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.

Comments

Re:First-Sale cuts both ways

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a complete idiot. I owned a video store through the mid to late-80's. Renting the physical copy of a videotape (or DVD) you have purchased is perfectly legal without any additional permission whatsoever.