What is the current legal situ on selling software

[britfrog 180]

Whilst I have read that areosoft have bowed to the eu courts and allow their software to be sold to a third party (however without any warrantee) I was wondering what the situ is as far as FTX is concerned. I seem to remember that FVFR prohibit in their eula any sale , but is this now legal?

 

The reason I ask is that I want to get rid of a load of software (mostly ftx) which I no longer use due to me re-adjusting my region of operations, can I legally sell them or do I have to bin them and does it make any difference between downloaded software or dvd?

[jaydor 345]

Not being a legal eagle sparrow, as FTX is now a registered company in the UK, then they would also come under the EU ruling..  Unless?

[brett 2,316]

Silly legal stuff, whatta ya selling and can they read PM's?

[UKJim 502]

What they don't know won't hurt them

If you give it to a friend and then for know reason at all they transfer some money in your account technically you didn't sell it you gave it away hehe - the post above looks like they would like to buy you a few drinks and you can lend them the ftx (never to be seen again)

[allardjd 1,853]

I think it's risky for high-end software that "phones home" each time it's started up. Barring that, there are probably no practical problems, but I can't address the legality of any of it.

John

[rob16584 42]

Speaking from a common sense point of view. As long as you totally uninstall the addon from your system prior to selling it I don't see a problem with it. You are extending the product's live and it will possibly lead to more sales for the developer once the new owner sees how good the product is.

Although the problem with common sense these days is that it's not that common anymore!

[britfrog 180]

Although the problem with common sense these days is that it's not that common anymore!

 

Now that is a sentiment that I totally agree with !!!!

[jaydor 345]

 

Although the problem with common sense these days is that it's not that common anymore!

 

Now that is a sentiment that I totally agree with !!!!

 

 

+1

[Gunner 69]

 

Although the problem with common sense these days is that it's not that common anymore!

 

Now that is a sentiment that I totally agree with !!!!

 

 

+1 from me too. Though, it doesn't help with the question .

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

I would have thought that since you bought the item legitimately it's up to you what you do with it later in life, nothing whatsoever to do with anyone else. It would be like buying a car and then finding it was still owned by the manufacturers and that you couldn't sell it! Absolute nonsense of course.  When an Item is sold it becomes the property of the purchaser. If of course you were running a shop and selling unlicenced versions of the item then they may have some way of nabbing you. However for a private individual it's your property, do what you like with it. (lets face it, if it ever went to court you just plead ignorance! Thats providing of course the thing ever got there in the first place, Most judges would simply chuck it out.) 

[brett 2,316]

Post the question on their support forum and see what kind of response you get.

[britfrog 180]

well last night i bought skiathos as it was on special offer -20%

and out of curiosity read the eula which I rarely do and it said this:

 

NO COMMERCIAL USE.  This Agreement does not grant you the right to use the Product for any commercial purpose other than your personal use and the decision to enter into a commercial license with Licensor for this Product Commercial purpose includes, but is not limited to, any purpose from which you, an end user of an application developed by you, or another person obtain financial or other consideration and any purpose associated with the operation of a commercial enterprise, even if you do not receive any consideration for that use.

NO TRANSFER, MODIFICATION, OR REPRODUCTION.  You may not rent, lease, sell, assign, loan, or otherwise transfer the Product.  You may not transfer or assign the rights and obligations set forth in this Agreement without Licensor's written consent.  You may not remove or destroy any copyright notices or other proprietary markings.  You may not modify or adapt the Product, merge the Product into another program, or create derivative works based on the Product.  You may not reproduce or distribute the Product without Licensor's written authorization.

however the law  says this:

However, in Europe, the European Court of Justice ruled on July 3, 2012, that it is indeed permissible to resell software licenses even if the digital good has been downloaded directly from the Internet, and that the first-sale doctrine applied whenever software was originally sold to a customer for an unlimited amount of time, as such sale involves a transfer of ownership, thus prohibiting any software maker from preventing the resale of their software by any of their legitimate owners.^[3][4][5] The court requires that the previous owner must no longer be able to use the licensed software after the resale, but finds that the practical difficulties in enforcing this clause should not be an obstacle to authorizing resale, as they are also present for software which can be installed from physical supports, where the first-sale doctrine is in force.^[6][7] The ruling applies to the European Union, but could indirectly find its way to North America; moreover the situation could entice publishers to offer platforms for a secondary market.^[4]

However, in Europe, the European Court of Justice ruled on July 3, 2012, that it is indeed permissible to resell software licenses even if the digital good has been downloaded directly from the Internet, and that the first-sale doctrine applied whenever software was originally sold to a customer for an unlimited amount of time, as such sale involves a transfer of ownership, thus prohibiting any software maker from preventing the resale of their software by any of their legitimate owners.^[3][4][5] The court requires that the previous owner must no longer be able to use the licensed software after the resale, but finds that the practical difficulties in enforcing this clause should not be an obstacle to authorizing resale, as they are also present for software which can be installed from physical supports, where the first-sale doctrine is in force.^[6][7] The ruling applies to the European Union, but could indirectly find its way to North America; moreover the situation could entice publishers to offer platforms for a secondary market.^[4]

 

^{As in all things legal the lawyers have chosen not to make a precise law so that they can make more money at some poor buggers cost in the next case that comes up!!} there is certainly a different law for the U.S. where the big companies can throw more weight around (pay off the judges)

Reading between the lines if you want to sell the odd program and that is it , it is not worth the time and effort of the software company to chase you as you paid very little for the prog, however if you have a program and copied it onto dvd which you then sold many copies on say ebay then they may well consider it worth their attention especially if you own a house.

[Kevin Firth 114]

Reading between the lines if you want to sell the odd program and that is it , it is not worth the time and effort of the software company to chase you as you paid very little for the prog, however if you have a program and copied it onto dvd which you then sold many copies on say ebay then they may well consider it worth their attention especially if you own a house

Seems a reasonable assessment to me, if you own one copy that's what you can sell, try to sell more than you legally own and that's then theft and you can take the rap.