Court Says First Sale Doctrine Doesn't Apply To Licensed Software 758
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by
Soulskill
from the make-up-your-mind dept.
from the make-up-your-mind dept.
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. "
Re:Whatever happened to copyright? (Score:4, Funny)
This is not about copyright. This is about contracts, which can apply to any good or service. The only question is what kind of contracts can be enforced through EULAs. Turns out, quite a wide range.
You know what will fix this problem in a hurry? People reading the EULA, rejecting it, and petitioning the publisher for a refund. If Activision would have to field to field about a million refund requests for SC2, I bet you that EULAs would get fixed in a jiffy. But since everyone just clicks Accept, nothing will change.
Judges lean towards protecting the little guy ... (Score:3, Funny)
... Short of signing over constitutionally protected rights, anything goes ...
Not quite. Judges often consider reasonableness, public interest and the relative sophistication of both parties. When one party is a company with a legal team and the other party is Joe Consumer judges often lean towards protecting the little guy when the deal is an un-negotiated take-it-or-leave it one.
The issue here is whether licensing software is reasonable or not. Software is kind of service-like, free patches and updates are often offered. You don't get patches/updates for paper books or audio CDs. I don't think this topic is a clear as many people claim.
Re:Bad consequences (Score:2, Funny)
> Most of the PS/2 items I've seen don't have EULAs that I've seen.
I agree, none of my keyboards or mice have had EULAs.
Re:Or even other goods (Score:3, Funny)
It isn't...
This isn't any different really, and I'd love to know what's in the Court's water pipe...so I can avoid it.
Pb.
Re:Bad consequences (Score:3, Funny)
I do think they are magnanimous enough to let you keep the box - so far they aren't licensing that to you.
Why not? It's no different from the CD. The artwork and text is copyrighted too.