InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "2hot2handle."

jeran (jeran) wrote,
@ 2008-05-22 09:26:00

Current mood:

satisfied

First sale valid for software
http://www.citizen.org/documents/vernororder.pdf

The judge basically says that, the language in AutoCAD's license nonwithstanding, copyright law and the first-sale doctrine apply. Among other things he ruled that, consistent with precedent, merely calling a transaction a license doesn't make it a license instead of a sale. The general rule was whether or not the recipient was required to return the item after a fixed term. If they weren't, it was a sale.

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	agtiger 2008-05-23 03:38 am UTC (link)
	Let's see how many software companies now seriously try to push for the online "licensed for x days" type of business model where effectively it stops working unless you pay them more, a virtual form of "you have to return it" (the functionality). Still, nice to see a judge rule this way. (Reply to this) (Thread)

jeran
2008-05-23 03:47 pm UTC (link)

Actually I'd like that. It has the virtue of being honest, and of being something the average person won't accept. They're used to buying software, not renting it. Renting games, yes, see GameFly, but not the kinds of software the software companies would like them to rent. And businesses will no way go for something where they're forced into upgrade cycles at someone else's whim. They already have enough problems with software when they can just keep using what they have once the vendor stops supporting it and releases a newer version. IT will have a fit, and Accounting will be right behind them because renting'd screw up so much of the capitalization and depreciation trickery.

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