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Used Software Can Be Sold, Says EU Court of Justice

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IainB:
This took me by surprise:
Used Software Can Be Sold, Says EU Court of Justice
Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 03, @08:46AM
from the over-and-over-and-over dept.

Sique writes:
"An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licenses allowing the
use of his programs downloaded from the internet. The exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by such a license is exhausted on its first sale. This was decided [Tuesday] (PDF) by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a case of Used Soft GmbH v. Oracle International Corp.."

--- End quote ---

eleman:
Thank god. Are people (and/or governments) waking up to the detrimental effects of copyright maximalism?

rgdot:
If you have uninstalled and not using it anymore that already exists, 'legally'. I know of at least one example, Rosetta Stone, email them the deactivation code. They have no way of knowing if the other person using it after you have uninstalled didn't pay you for it.

IainB:
Thank god. Are people (and/or governments) waking up to the detrimental effects of copyright maximalism?
-eleman (July 03, 2012, 10:25 AM)
--- End quote ---
Snap! That's almost exactly what I thought to myself too.     :up:
In fact it's a bit like a step towards a severe correction to the tendency towards copyright "absolutism".
Who knows, it could even be opening the door to the possibility of the abolition of copyright?
Copyright certainly seems to have been used as a legal principle that has held us in thrall to the monopolies for decades, and which is still apparently being used by monopolies to keep us in that state and even reinforce it.
This new step could thus be regarded as antitrust legislation.

tomos:
Will be interesting to see what happens now.

Will software now have to cater to being passed on/sold and re-registered?
Commenter(s) make the point that this could end up with Software being sold as an expiring lisence model rather than "a permanent right to use the copy".

Some saying software doesnt wear out. But it does really - you've got to upgrade it eventually. So this must not be a negative thing for software companies imo.

In Germany (possibly in all EU?) "courts ... have ruled years ago that taking OEM software licenses out of a bundle and selling them separately is legal."
I bought windows that way (was originally intended for a Dell machine. I looked again lately though and there were almost no OEM copies on offer - I dunno did they clamp down on the supply or what happened.)

Adobe used to allow users to transfer registration. I dont know if that's still the case.

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