Re: First sale litigation in Germany

[Hadron]

So, in English, the Freetards lost?


Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> There is a ruling from the BGH (third level court which is akin to
> SCOTUS apart from constitutional matters) regarding first sale aka
> exhaustion doctrine.
>
> Consumer rights protection group sued the maker of
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2 asking the court forbid to
> suggest in a shrink-wrap EULA that online accounts created with one-time
> key (the key comes with a copy of software/game) can not be sold by game
> copy owner.
>
> Once you buy a copy of Half Life 2 software and create an online account
> your copy becomes pretty much worthless regarding resale if potential
> buyer can not reuse the online account you created because the key is
> not valid any more to create another account.
>
> Consumer rights protection group argued that it violates the doctrine of
> first sale and hence shall be forbidden.
>
> The publisher argued that a copy of game software is more like a ticket
> for a show which can not be "reused" once the show is over.
>
> Consumer rights protection group lost on two levels and appealed to the
> highest court (the BGH).
>
> The BGH ruled that publisher's practice does not violate first sale
> because copies can be resold and suggestion that a copy may become
> worthless for resale (after the creation of online account) is
> irrelevant. The court explicitly didn't rule on contractual
> enforceability of online account resale restriction.
>
> Here is the ruling:
>
> http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=en&Datum=Aktuell&Sort=12288&nr=52877&pos=4&anz=634
>
> regards,
> alexander.