Interesting news for Americans, software can be resold under First Sale Doctrine. So it’s not a license to use software huh?
3 thoughts on “First Sale Doctrine On Software”
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Interesting news for Americans, software can be resold under First Sale Doctrine. So it’s not a license to use software huh?
Comments are closed.
It will be interesting to see if that court decision does have an impact on software EULAs in the next few years. I don’t think this decision will break EULAs entirely, but I am curious if it would mandate that all EULAs be transferable under first sale doctrine (in which case some companies would have to change theirs). The question becomes how do you tell the rightful owner of a particular EULA? It may mean a return to physical EULA in box and the death of click-wrap EULAs.
…and certainly complicates digital downloads if it were to be mandated that they be eligible for resale/trade under first sale doctrine. I’ve before mentioned that I think that digital download shops should do that of their own volition, anyway. (Why can’t I trade a few games on my Steam account for a few on my brother’s account?)
Absolutely. ELUA’s are long due for an overhaul, and slowly are changing both in the USA and EU through various courts. The digital downloads will be affected too no doubt – I too am entirely annoyed I cannot transfer my games on Steam and other downloads.
Anyway, we always buy a license. Doesn’t matter if it is a licence or not, we should be able to resell it! 🙂