The Story
A man named Timothy Vernor is bringing a suit against Autodesk after eBay delisted some of his sales. Mr. Vernor was selling copies of the Autodesk’s imaging software second-hand. These were not illegal copies, but valid versions of the software which Mr. Vernor was reselling, meaning with the original discs and working validation keys. Autodesk sent eBay a takedown notice saying that the sale of Autodesk second-hand is in violation of the DMCA.
According to Autodesk, the issue here is that Mr. Vernor did not initially pay for a copy of the software, but rather a license to use the software. Because Mr. Vernor only has a license, he does not have the right to resell the product.
Landmark
This is a huge deal legally as this case will set some precedent as to how digital property rights work. Autodesk is saying that licensed software intrinsically means that the initially purchaser does not have the right to resell the software (if the license said “You cannot resell this” outright, then Mr. Vernor would not have a case to bring).
This case should really only apply to instances of files and software which involve some form of digital rights management. When you buy music from the Amazon MP3 Store, you are agreeing to a license from Amazon, though the file you are receiving has no DRM associated with it. If you sell that music file to someone else, there is nothing preventing you from using a copy, or from the file you sold’s having been a copy. In the case of something like Autodesk, however, you need a validation key to run the program, so if you sell your copy and don’t do anything else which is otherwise illegal, then the conditions around the sale are not so far removed from that of a physical good. This is unfortunate (I would love to sell MP3s I don’t want anymore), but there is no good way to properly resell unprotected files just yet.
The court should side with Mr. Vernor. There is really no difference between reselling a legal piece of software which requires some sort of validation and selling a car. So long as the seller isn’t keeping a hacked copy for himself or uploading the software to The Pirate Bay before selling it, the act of sale removes his ability to continue to use the product. Essentially, Autodesk wants the legal system to force users to buy software new so that it makes more money, even though there is no compelling reason for the law to work that way.
