Posted on 09/30/2009 5:29:54 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
A judge Tuesday heard arguments in a dispute over software sales that could potentially have repercussions on the secondhand sale of virtually any copyright material.
The suit was filed by Timothy Vernor, a seller on eBay, after Autodesk, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, asked eBay to remove some of its software products that Vernor had listed for sale there, and later to ban him from the site.
Vernor had not illegally copied the software but was selling legitimate CDs of the products secondhand. For that reason, he argued, he was not infringing Autodesk's copyright.
Autodesk countered that because it licences the software, rather than selling it outright, a licensee does not have the right to resell its products.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworlduk.com ...
Hasn’t this been tried before?
I seem to recall some computer software suit from the 80s.
Remind me not to buy any autodesk software
This is the reason I just give my penultimate version of software away.
But Autodesk was selling licenses, which under the First Sale doctrine, are permitted to be transferred, permitting that no copies have been made.
Autodesk is full of sh*t.
It's crapola anyway, and not worth the price. I used Autocad years ago when it was a simple 2D drafting program. I now have a copy of Intellicad 2000 that was released as freeware in 2000 for playing around at home. For professional design, Solidworks is way better.
Everyone thinks they can patent the whole world. Isn’t there free software out that that’ll do what Autodesk does? This protectionist stuff never works, but they never learn...
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me about five years ago. My college’s bookstore was having a closeout sale, and I bought 34 copies of Autodesk Building Systems for educational users for $25 (total!).
I was selling them on eBay at their original price of $75 (the bookstore’s sticker was still on them). I had sold about 10 of them before my auction got taken down by eBay, and the reason was that Autodesk had requested it. Luckily, eBay didn’t shut down my account.
nobody's buying it, these days.
Kinda bouncing from one extreme to the other here, aren't you?
You don't get what you don't pay for.
SolidWorks subscriber here too. I had some engineering mag site ask me to take a poll for them. The poll was focused on the SW products that can read and edit Autocad drawings without having a seat of Autocad. Looks like our friends in San Rafael are trying to build a case for SW’s DWGGateway and DWGEditor add ins.
My guess is their market share is shrinking and they have to find ways at buolstering their bottom line to keep that prime real estate right on Hwy 101.
Perhaps not Autocad. But Maya is still very popular.
I agree, Autodesk is a compilation of acquisitions that they do not have the ability to support. I use their garbage every day and when I get home I scour the job listings for a SolidWorks opportunity.
ping
Oh, I’m a total amateur with CAD/Drawing stuff. I saw a bunch of stuff online one day that made it SOUND like it’d do everything under the sun, but it’s probably just wishful thinking. My point is that some of this patent/copyright stuff is getting ridiculous.
In some cases you do. I still haven't found a better DVD ripping program than the free Handbrake, free or for sale.
I believe it takes (or at least used to) three “copyright” infractions to get your account suspended on ebay.
That's a life lesson.
Why? Why should you take advantage of someone else's time, talent, and labor with no remuneration to them whatsover? Or are they compensated by other means?
Either way, the benefit is never without cost to someone, which is the finer point I should have made in anticipation of the usual argument.
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