European Court Of Justice allows the resale of software licenses

At the request of the Federal Court of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided in Luxembourg on Tuesday that second-hand software licenses may be resold and generally followed, as expected, the opinion of the Advocate General Yves Bot. This ruling also applies to download software.

A sensation. Thus, this long-awaited judgment has far-reaching consequences for all software vendors. A year-long dispute over the resale of used software licenses is a significant benefit of the end used software industry. The current legal uncertainty is complete. In the current case, the software developer Oracle had sued the company in Munich usedSoft because he saw his rights violated.

With the sale of the software were the rights of the manufacturer of the relevant copy exhausted, the Luxembourg judges declared the verdict. Differentiation between CD-ROM and DVD on the one hand, and a "non-physical copy" from the Internet on the other hand would find not take place. There is a distinction between a purchased disk and a paid download. Otherwise, could the producers' control which have been downloaded from the Internet, and require every resale again a fee, although he had at first sale of that copy was able to achieve a reasonable compensation "programs, then the judgment.

The permanent right of use that is associated with the acquisition of the license agreement is closed, not bound by the original purchaser. He is the sole owner and may sell it on, but then not of course continue to use myself. In the verdict puts it, "If the copyright holder of its clients namely - tangible or intangible - a copy is available, and it includes the same time to a payment of a license agreement through which the customer receives the perpetual right to use this copy, so he sold them copy to the customer and thus exhausted his exclusive right of distribution. "

Updates remain on the resale of used software unaffected. It follows that the one who buys a license needed, and the right to the latest version of the program. "Even if the maintenance contract is limited, the improved result of such a contract, changed or supplemented functions namely part of the original downloaded copy and can be used by the customer without any time limit," said the judgment on.

In the future, as more software is loaded directly from the manufacturer from the Internet, this ruling has enormous influence on the used software market. In the U.S., making downloads for computer and video games already account for almost half of sales. Follow suit to what extent the software market for operating systems and office applications is therefore only a matter of time. "The ruling confirms our philosophy of free movement of used software" remarked Boris Vöge, CEO of Software AG preo. This should "just like any other product also sell on." With regard to electronically distributed software show the verdict a "significant adjustment of the copyright in the parameters of the digital society."