Court Says First Sale Doctrine Doesn't Apply To Licensed Software

An anonymous reader wrote to tell us a federal appeals court ruled today that the first sale doctrine is "unavailable to those who are only licensed to use their copies of copyrighted works." This reverses a 2008 decision from the Autodesk case, in which a man was selling used copies of AutoCAD that were not currently installed on any computers. Autodesk objected to the sales because their license agreement did not permit the transfer of ownership. Today's ruling (PDF) upholds Autodesk's claims: "We hold today that a software user is a licensee rather than an owner of a copy where the copyright owner (1) specifies that the user is granted a license; (2) significantly restricts the user’s ability to transfer the software; and (3) imposes notable use restrictions. Applying our holding to Autodesk’s [software license agreement], we conclude that CTA was a licensee rather than an owner of copies of Release 14 and thus was not entitled to invoke the first sale doctrine or the essential step defense. "

Comments

Re:Bad consequences

[lamapper]

Your enemy is a multinational cartel, which means they have NO alliance to this or any other country or their beliefs, would have NO problem perverting laws and removing rights in trade for higher profits, and finally has billions of dollars to use against you with everything from SLAPP style lawsuits to outright bribery of elected officials.

Mod him up.

If Americans truly understood the enemy, no Republican candidate would EVER get elected. The majority of Democratic candidates would not be elected either. No Libertarian candidate would stand a chance as they are way too pro corporate. Citizen's United vs FEC was the plan-goal, 12 - 20 years in the making. Its way past time for wake up calls for people who are easily distracted by Religion; think giving up "rights" make them safer or who think a magic bullet killed Kennedy and that our own government would not act to our disadvantage in the name of multi-national corporate interests, calling it American interests. If you are not awake now, you will be starving within 10 years when your local grocery store shelves start running bare and you can not afford food, much less gasoline. Predictions have that starting by the end of this year (2010 or next year 2011)...so you have time to start learning how to grow crops now...better get started.

The past great wars (WW I and WW II) were fought to prevent this type of abuse and keep Americans free, how is it working for you? All wars since them have been stupid, short sighted and for the wrong reasons, like big Oil in Iraq. The Birchers were thrown out of the Republican party at one time, now those people are running the Republican party. (Like we need an example like the Religious cult leader in Gainesville Florida who was threatening to burn the Koran for us to realize our founders truly understood why we needed separation of Church and state.)

Many counties have banned very large, big box, multi-national corporations from getting permits to own land and/or run businesses in their county. I know Walmart buys land just across the county line. We need to find a county, surrounded by counties with the same ban...giving us a 240 mile buffer (4 hour drive @ 60 mph one way) so small business can finally create decent paying jobs for Americans. And Americans can afford to provide for their families. This would also benefit churches...a Win - Win - Win - Win. We are not talking about only a few counties here, but literally hundreds of counties across the country. I saw the list on a Youtube video about Walmart abuses...it was 20, 30 or 40 minutes long and well worth the time to watch. That list would be a good place to start your search for a new home.

In one city, in Colorado I think...name escapes me, all the local banks and financial institutions have created their own currency, which can be converted to US Dollars whenever. With 10% - 20% discounts given to people to use the local currency instead of dollars, that community is better insulated from the multi-nationally owned Federal Reserve System (Read "Secrets of the Federal Reserve System" if you can find one to learn how it is privately owned by 6/7 families around the world...it was an edification to say the least). Its time to realize that FDIC insurance is not worth the paper it is written on and free up local banks to support their community.

Now add a law, first preventing local politicians from taking money from any company (large or small) to campaign and run for office and perhaps you will get some decent people who really want to work for the community in which they live. I suggest a poison-pill provision such that if they accept corporate financing or violate their oath of office, the police come in and remove them from office in order to "protect and serve" the community. A substitute with the same "political" leanings can run the office while they defend themselves in court...after all, innocent until proven guilty, right? And if they are innocent the accuser will