eBay Seller Sues Autodesk for $10 Million

[Kristijntje]

A lawsuit has been filed in Federal Court (US District Court for the Western Washington District C07-1189 JLR) that alleges Autodesk, Inc maker of the industry standard AutoCAD software and their attorney Andrew S. Mackay have devised an illegal scheme to have used copies of their software removed from the eBay site using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act...

full article: http://aecnews.com/news/2007/09/10/2377.aspx

[mandy]

Update: US Federal court upholds first sale doctine and finds in favor of the eBay seller:

The US District Court in Seattle on Wednesday ruled in favor of eBay seller Timothy S. Vernor, denying Autodesk’s request for “summary judgment” against Vernor. In doing so the court ruled that Vernor had the right to appeal for relief from Autodesk actions based on the “first sale” doctrine of copyright law. In finding for Vernor, Judge Richard Jones’ ruling dismissed most of Autodesk’s wide-ranging legal arguments as without standing.

If allowed to stand, the ruling effectively pulls the heart out of the license agreements that accompany most retail software products on the market today. You can be sure that not only Autodesk, but most software companies, will take action of some sort in response. It is unimaginable that Autodesk will not appeal this decision...

full article: http://aecnews.com/news/2008/05/21/3414.aspx

Ars with more on the ruling:

Autodesk argued that it only licenses copies of its software, rather than selling them, and that therefore any resale of the software constitutes copyright infringement.

But Judge Richard A. Jones rejected that argument, holding that Vernor is entitled to sell used copies of Autodesk's software regardless of any licensing agreement that might have bound the software's previous owners...

full article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/200...tware.html

[regic]

If allowed to stand, the ruling effectively pulls the heart out of the license agreements that accompany most retail software products on the market today.

Good.