At 6:46 PM -0500 4/7/2011, Kris Tilford wrote:
On Apr 7, 2011, at 4:45 PM, Dan wrote:
But if the disc was *bundled* with a computer system when
originally purchased then the license is NON-transferrable -- so
the software and media must be sold WITH the computer system.
Sites that permit the sale of such OEM softwares are doing so at
their own legal risk with eye patch glued on.
I don't profess to be a lawyer, but the logical basis for this
escapes me. If I own a car, and the engine came "bundled" with the
car, I still "own" the engine, and if I want to remove the engine
and sell it to a guy who needs an engine for his boat, and has the
ability to use the engine from a car in a boat, this seems perfectly
fine to me.
The engine is a physical good. The bundled software is not.
Remember, the issue here is the transfer of the license (a copyright
use) NOT the physical transfer of the representation of the object or
the object itself.
As I see it, when the computer and the software were "bundled", you
paid a "bundled" price, and part of that money was used to buy the
software. The computer would be less valuable without the software,
so this means the software adds value, and some part of the bundled
payment "bought" that software.
Good logic for the hardware components in the computer. But NOT for
the intangible licensed copyrighted softwares. The OEM license is
not transferrable therefore selling the bundled software separately
is a copyright violation.
If you assume the opposite, that you have no ownership rights to the
software on the physical disc, then you establish a precedent that a
physical object has no value.
Erase the software - the licensed thing - from the physical disc.
Then feel free to sell the disc.
Separate in your mind the difference between the physical media and
the software thereon.
eg: You own your shirt but not the corporate logo printed upon it.
I can see clearly why Apple is rushing so fast to the App Store
format, and doing away with physical discs because I would agree
that ownership of bits makes no sense
The rush to the app store has *nothing* to do with licensing. It's
about PROFIT. Apple gets 30% off the top of every sale! The
licensing machinations, er a embedded DRM, is simply an afterthought
to appease the Wolf Ram and Hart.
With physical objects, I believe that payment constitutes
"ownership" and once you own the item, you're free to sell it
irrespective of what the creator of the physical object says because
their rights to that physical object ended when they accepted
payment for the object.
Yes. That would be the doctrine of first sale, as applied to
physical tangible goods.
It was their choice, and in this case Apple chose to accept payment
in exchange for providing a physical disc with software (a number)
encoded onto it, and in my view, the only logical conclusion is that
Apple has NO RIGHTS to any physical discs they have sold, bundled or
otherwise. If the law is different, the law is WRONG, and needs to
be changed.
No, the issue is the copyrighted work - in this case the operating
system - *ON* the physical media. That copyrighted work was licensed
for use on a particular computer ONLY. NON-transferrable.
I believe this was the exact subject of the lawsuit I cited. The
company Autodesk claimed the software was a "license", while the
eBay reseller claimed "ownership" of the physical discs. The court
decided the reseller did in fact own the physical discs, and was
free to resell them as he wished. Once the horse has left the barn,
the owner of the barn has no say on where it runs, especially when
the barn owner has ACCEPTED PAYMENT for the horse already.
The Seller had purchased *retail* kits from an unauthorized dealer
and wanted to resell them. The licenses were not bundled with a
system. The licenses had NOT in fact been used by anyone. This was
not a secondary market transfer of ownership. This was, for example,
as if the company had sold products to a wholesaler and the
wholesaler had in turn sold them to a retailer - then the company
tried to stop the retailer from selling to customers. Different
situation. In our situation we're talking *transferring* a "used"
license, that is already specified as NON-transferrable.
OMG Sheldon is pregnant?!
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
--
You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for
those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books).
The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette
guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To leave this group, send email to [email protected]
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books
Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
