Software Makers Can Prohibit Reselling

[RicheemxX]

Wow, this could be big for many of us out there that want to sale off older copies of software or for that matter anyone that buys and sales anything used. It could spread to movies, music, games ect!!

Software Makers Win Big in Supreme Court Copyright Fight | Threat Level | Wired.com

The Supreme Court is refusing to review a federal appellate panel’s decision that software makers may use shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses to forbid the transfer or resale of their wares.....

That 3-0 circuit court decision means copyright owners may prohibit the resale of their wares by inserting clauses in their sales agreements. Autodesk had done that with a version of its popular AutoCAD software. The San Rafael, California company sued to enforce those terms in its sales agreement and prevailed.

[Steve R Jones]

Ya gotta get caught first

[RicheemxX]

Well that goes without saying, however in this case the plaintiff was only reselling 4 legit licenses. Image what this could mean if it spread outward towards movies and games. eBayers out there would take a serious hit.

[Taxmancometh]

I just had to buy COD4 on eBay because my key was always in use (Probably due to hacking) and if this applies to games that will most suck.

[ShyguyXPC]

I can understand to some degree why this is being done, but with items like Games and Movies, and Music, if implemented on those, could cause MASSIVE amounts of piracy. And could kill the resell market for the physical media versions of those products.

Right now I rely heavily on Gamestops Pre owned titles for Console games, though I don't buy often, but unless the game or system is REALLY worth it, I never buy New for that stuff.

If there's like a $5 or $2 difference between New and Used I'll go for new, but otherwise I buy used.

Most of my Music, and Video media I never sell off, I just hold on to, no reason really, unless I got something I really didn't care for. otherwise I bought the stuff because I like it, and intend to keep it.


Another thing that might be affected, occasionally I do buy legit Licenses and Media for OS's like Windows online, if a friend or someone I know is selling them cheap, this could impact those kinds of sales easily.

Though as steve said, you gotta get caught first. Will make it pretty hard to do with forums and other more private selling outlets.

Though if a product is registered and activated online under one name/account, and then a year or two later activated under another, wouldn't take much for software manufacturers to allow the software to be remotely deactivated when registering online. Just like with modern Win7, an unregistered version of Win7 won't allow for much in updates until its registered. But taken a bit further in the implementation.