March 04, 2011
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has been asked by a German court to rule on the legality of a company’s sale of second hand software licenses.
The German case was brought by the software company Oracle against another company, usedSoft that permits customers to download Oracle software by purchasing second hand licenses. Oracle is claiming that usedSoft is infringing its copyright as the licenses are non-transferable.
The ECJ has been asked to clarify the position under European legislation that governs the resale of downloaded software. Therefore the case may have implications for other companies that sell used software licenses. If the purchaser of the second hand software is found not to be a ‘lawful acquirer’ of the software, they may be in breach of copyright.
Recent decisions have clarified that the sale of used software is essentially legal; it is only where the software has been sold on-line that there is uncertainty. Thus Microsoft was unable last year, to prevent the sale of single licenses that it sold originally within volume license agreements.
