Submission + - Judge rules in favour of used software sales (cio.com.au)
Dan Jones writes: A judge has ruled in favor of a man arguing that he has the right to sell secondhand software, in a case that had some people worried about an end to used-book and CD stores. The suit was initially filed by Timothy Vernor after eBay, responding to requests by Autodesk, removed the Autocad software that Vernor was trying to sell on the auction site. EBay later banned Vernor from the site, based on Autodesk's complaints. Vernor argued that since he was selling legitimate versions of the software — not illegal copies — he hadn't violated any laws. Autodesk contends that it doesn't 'sell' its software, but instead licenses it and therefore prohibits buyers from reselling it. But no matter how Autodesk describes the agreement with customers, it is transferring ownership to end-users the judge found. Autodesk had argued that its restrictions on the way that buyers can use the software show that users license rather than own the software.