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Re: US court says software is owned, not licensed


From: amicus_curious
Subject: Re: US court says software is owned, not licensed
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:32:50 -0400


"Robert Heller" <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote in message news:o8udnc2yU_A6W03XnZ2dnUVZ_jydnZ2d@posted.localnet...

If one has, for example, a shrink wrapped copy, never opened (and thus
never installed), it is perfectly legal to re-sell that copy.  I
believe that was citizen.org's case.  Once you install it (eg open the
box), then one 'has made a copy'.  If you resell the box/CD/whatever,
someone ends up with a non-legal copy (assuming that the software in
question was not GPL or other open source, which was the case with the
eBay vender vs Autodesk case that citizen.org defended).

That appears to be a wrong understanding of the facts presented in the case. The eBay vendor obtained these used copies of AutoCAD from sources that had moved to newer versions and had obtained the original materials. In the case of the GPL, there is no need to root around getting old copies, you can just as easily obtain a new copy at zero cost. Now that new copy can be passed on as one pleases, with or without source, following the logic of the eBay/AutoCAD case.


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