You Don’t Own That Software You Bought

Is this the end of the first-sale doctrine as we know it? If this decision handed down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal today stands, it sure will be. I guess the reasoning is that if you don’t own it, you can’t resell it.

"The terms of the software license in the case are not very different from the terms of most software licensing. So I think it’s safe to say that most people don’t own their software," said Greg Beck, the defense attorney in the case who represented an eBay seller sued by Autodesk. "The other ramification, there is no reason a similar license could not be put into the cover of a book. It wouldn’t be difficult for everybody to implement this."

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