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Used Software Can Be Sold, Says EU Court of Justice

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TaoPhoenix:
I was just reading the following yesterday:

  Misinterpreting Copyright - A Series of Errors

I haven't verified the points made in the piece, but it has sparked my interest to investigate further.

As I understand it, the piece has mostly to do with the U.S. -- don't have any clue about other countries.
-ewemoa (July 04, 2012, 11:28 PM)
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But look at the bottom:
"Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. "

So it's simultaneously copyrighted and THEN licensed as Creative Commons!?

app103:
So it's simultaneously copyrighted and THEN licensed as Creative Commons!?
-TaoPhoenix (July 07, 2012, 04:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

Attaching a CC license to your work in no way forces you to give up your copyrights.

With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify here. -http://creativecommons.org/choose/
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tomos:
Going hypothetical for a moment, if you buy the software in the USA, (physical/downloaded), and then sell it in the EU - is it illegal ?
-4wd (July 06, 2012, 09:12 PM)
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you (someone) could make a bit of money like that - e.g. adobe software is a lot cheaper in the states.

completely off-topic: Adobe & mathsOkay, I'm very off-topic here, but I actually just got an offer of a large discount on adobe products, so I checked out some prices (euros converted to US dollars):
e.g. Acrobat X Pro
adobe.de = $817 for disk (inc. 19% vat - delivery free)
adobe.de = $844 for download (inc. 19% vat)
NOTE: that makes the download $27 more expensive than the CD delivery :huh: :huh:
adobe.com = $449 - if I add the 19% vat it becomes = $538

so, even including taxes on both, the adobe.de download is $306 more expensive than the US one. Or roughly 56% more expensive.
I usually try to avoid this topic cause I dont like hating, but that's what I end up doing. I cant afford this, but even if I could, I find it so offensive, I wouldnt...

IainB:
@tomos: I'm not so sure the "Adobe & maths" you provide is as completely off-topic as you seem to think.
The sort of obscene (read "profiteering") price-differential you refer to is usually the result of unfair pricing practices in a supply-chain controlled by monopolistic suppliers or their agents. Such practices are usually illegal inside most Western economies, but not necessarily between them - e.g., they seem to be common in otherwise unregulated "free trade" international transactions.
In fact, you theoretically (and usually in practice) couldn't have such obscene price differentials unless there was such a practice or supply-chain in operation.

The right to be able to sell "used" or pre-owned software is just a digital version of you exercising your existing right to sell (say) a piece of furniture that you had bought but might no longer want - that is what this EU Court of Justice decision confirms.
It's your property (as per Locke's definition), after all.
Similarly, the idea of selling music tracks on mp3 files. If you got tired of your old vinyl LPs or cassette tapes, then you could always sell them. They are your property.
Hmm...now, about ebooks...?    :)

You always know there is probably some kind of monopolistic, profiteering or restrictive trade practice in play the moment someone or something (e.g., statute or local bye-law) tries to block you from selling what is legally your property, or where you can only obtain the purchase of a property through specific and artificially highly-priced agents.
Price-rigging and cartels (price-fixing agreements between suppliers) are monopolistic and usually illegal, but are common - they keep popping up.
It really does seem that you can't keep a good idea (for profiteering or ripping-off other people) down.    ;)
(Libor rate-fixing would seem to be the latest "exposure" of this - it's apparently epidemic and systemic in the financial system.)

This EU Court of Justice ruling on used software helps to redress the balance on the consumer's behalf.
That's two (i.e., that and the rejection of ACTA by MEPs) eminently sensible things to have come out of the EU inside the last 30 days from unelected representatives. That must be a record achievement. One could arguably have been most surprising. Two could be amazing.    ;D

app103:
Going hypothetical for a moment, if you buy the software in the USA, (physical/downloaded), and then sell it in the EU - is it illegal ?
-4wd (July 06, 2012, 09:12 PM)
--- End quote ---

you (someone) could make a bit of money like that - e.g. adobe software is a lot cheaper in the states.

-tomos (July 07, 2012, 05:43 PM)
--- End quote ---

You might want to hold off a few months before deciding to get into that line of business, at least here in the US.

Supap Kirtsaeng was a student that discovered that the textbook publishers were selling the same books in other countries much cheaper than they did in the US and decided to start a business, having his family buy and ship textbooks from Thailand to the US, which he sold on Ebay, for a profit.

When he was sued by a publisher, who claimed what he was doing was copyright infringement, he ended up losing the case when a judge decided that the First Sale doctrine only applied to goods sold in the US that were manufactured for the US market.

His appeal will come up in front of the Supreme Court this fall, and the decision they make could have some far reaching implications concerning the resale of used copyrighted goods manufactured overseas (think used cars whose computer systems contain copyrighted software written abroad.) and libraries lending foreign books they may have stocked on their shelves.

http://chronicle.com/article/Supreme-Court-Will-Hear-Case/131568/

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