New EuGH ruling on selling a licences for software / 3th July

[bossland]

An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his ?used? licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet

The exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by such a licence is exhausted on its first sale

English http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf

German http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094de.pdf

 

[wozoki]

Im sorry, but what does this mean? Who are Oracle and what is UsedSoft?
Will still stop the sales of HB?

Pardon me for being a noob :/

 

[Giwin]

I think it's good news because it gives the author less rights when it comes to... I don't know either but I think it's good ^^.

 

[chaos50006]

I think this means that we cant re-sell our licenses, Just my best guess

 

[axazol]

That mean what if such rules be applied to BuddyTeam? then we all in deep hole of shit.
In two words: If you make some product which can be distributed digitally (cd-rom, dvd or downloading from site), then license cover all regions in which you distribute your product. Which may be mean what now not only german people can't use DB, so now and all others and not only DB.

Or... My english is too bad and that is some sort of good news and we will drink tequila watching how our bots make money.

 

[hi1674]

I think it means that Blizzard cannot prevent ppl selling their wow-accounts.

Quote:
Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy.

 

[bossland]

It seems not many ppl did read that PDF at all, but start writing stories and fairy-tales

It means that you are allowed to sell your software licence, that you bought of, for example Blizzard, at any time and even IF the EULA tells you that its forbidden.

Because its yours.

 

[Mario27]

It seems not many ppl did read that PDF at all, but start writing stories and fairy-tales

It means that you are allowed to sell your software licence, that you bought of, for example Blizzard, at any time and even IF the EULA tells you that its forbidden.

Because its yours.

o ok nice

 

[hi1674]

It seems not many ppl did read that PDF at all, but start writing stories and fairy-tales

It means that you are allowed to sell your software licence, that you bought of, for example Blizzard, at any time and even IF the EULA tells you that its forbidden.

Because its yours.

What i said !

 

[CodenameG]

same thing with buddy products, just please dont do it here.

 

[Lovemonkey]

Does this mean blizzard cant ban us for selling wow accounts?

And if they do they would be breaking the law?

 

[Lister]

I nice day f?r Players and a bad day for Game Developers like EA ...

 

[hi1674]

Does this mean blizzard cant ban us for selling wow accounts?

And if they do they would be breaking the law?

Correct.

But they can actually come up with any reason what so ever to ban an account so i doubt this will have a significant impact on the games industry.

 

[1101011]

same thing with buddy products, just please dont do it here.

realy? The court says

the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period

and daemonbuddy is sold for lifetime and as 1 year licence. But even the lifertime Version of honorbuddy or dameonbuddy
is usable only (a lot of) years so doesn't the buddy products count as "limited period" ?

Correct.

But they can actually come up with any reason what so ever to ban an account so i doubt this will have a significant impact on the games industry.

i don't think so. Most Game procuts are bounded to an account so you have to sell the whole account. You can't "splitt" the games.
If you sell your account the could ban you but if the ban you for selling the account you shold be able to call a court and you should win.
But the problem is, nobody would take the money and time for only a game ;-(

You are right it should not have a big impact untile someone spends the money and time and go to court.
After that it should have a big impact ;-)

 

[hi1674]

I never stated you could split the games.

Accounts with multiple games should make no difference according to this ruling.

Do i really have a case and the urge to file a lawsuit since i'm not the owner and i most likely got my money for selling the account.

The buyer would have more to gain for going to court and here it's getting interesting since he prolly spent quite a lot to get an account with some good toons on it.(in this case i'm referring to wow/diablo3)

 

[xsol]

I really hope to see more news like this. The current state of TOC and EULA in USA makes me sick.

Vendor: For just $500-$2000 you can give up all your rights, your soul, and get a crap product with paid support.
Capitalist American User: YAY
Actually Intelligent American User: WTFH, your IP!?!?!?!?!?! fuck your IP it isn't worth 500 billion dollars.

And, thus goes my on going debate with friends about having courts sets a fixed value on an IP (WTFH how is that possible)

 

[Kane49_2]

Selling the license to play != Selling your account with characters on it

 

[tylerfoster]

SO technically one would think that they would have no case to stop Honorbuddy from developing because you are providing the bot on individual licenses and not theirs, and that means to me, that the BOT usage can only be punishable only from breaking the rules and only to the person USING it, not developing it.

 

[sakusa]

Selling the license to play != Selling your account with characters on it

an account with characters on it, is nothing else than a used license of the software, which must be allowed to trade!

after reading the document, a very short summary....


- a sold license can be resold no matter if it is a physical copy or an internet download license
- the seller must not use the sold software anymore and uninstall it
- multilicense packages are not able to be split in single licenses and resold seperatly
- the new owner has full rights in terms of usage, updates, downloads, etc...

so all in all selling a b.net account seems to be "allowed by law" and can not be prohibited by any TOS (in europe)
if blizzard would suspend / close an account due to selling, you could first contact the customer support and refer to the judgment.
and/or go the way to the court...

another example: pirox once forbid the selling and transfer of his licenses, this would also not be allowed anymore...

 

[simtim]

Im sorry, but what does this mean? Who are Oracle and what is UsedSoft?
Will still stop the sales of HB?

Pardon me for being a noob :/

What it means... is that when a piece of software is sold in the eu...the company who made the software looses the right to decide who owns that license. Thus the person who bought it can then re-sell it to a company like "Usedsoft" who buy used software and re-sell it. Or to any random person really.

"Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy ? tangible or intangible
? and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a licence agreement
granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period, that rightholder
sells the copy to the customer and thus exhausts his exclusive distribution right. Such a
transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy. Therefore, even if the licence
agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of
that copy."


Please note that this applies only to the EU. Such a determination has not been made in the US. If someone in the US tries selling their account's License and gets banned for it... this ruling will probably not hold up.

One thing that we could try here in the states at least... is if this were to crop up we could relate to this ruling and point to companies like Gamestop, and Gamefly that deal in used games. Games that should have the same eula as the same game on the pc *Like Modern warfare 3 for instance* Doing something like that would probably hold up a bit better.