Reselling Software [Was: Appleworks/MS Excel]

[Alex]

On Tuesday, Apr 6, 2004, at 11:47 Canada/Eastern, lavode at comcast.net 
wrote:

> Since we're talking about the gray area between legal and illegal, I 
> might point out another couple alternatives:
>
> 1.  Go onto eBay and get your ware there. (Totally legal) [...]

On Tuesday, Apr 6, 2004, at 11:50 Canada/Eastern, Charles Hines wrote:

> I have a copy of cumulus that's not being used. Do you think it will
> sell on ebay? Can I resell software?

Reselling software is not at all "totally legal". Legally, it's a grey 
area.

When you "buy software" as an end-user, what you actually buy is a 
licence to use that software under certain terms and conditions, as 
specified in the EULA (End User Licence Agreement). Usually, installing 
the software implies acceptance on your part of the EULA. When you 
"sell" that software, on e-bay or elsewhere, what you're actually doing 
is transferring that licence to someone else. (Assuming, of course, you 
deleted all your copies of said software and ceased using it. 
Otherwise, you're just an ordinary pirate.) In most cases, such a 
transfer requires the agreement of the licensor to be "totally legal". 
Often, the EULA specifies the terms under which you can transfer the 
licence to a third-party, so, if you want to be "totally legal", you 
must first read the EULA very carefully.

Having said that, by and large software developers close their eyes to 
the practice of "re-selling" software. They have much bigger fish to 
fry, especially since it's arguable whether they're hurt or not by it.

So, would I buy or sell software on e-bay? Sure. Would it bother my 
conscience? Yes, just about as much as the fact that this morning I 
didn't use a pedestrian crossing to get to the other side of the street.

f