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Tag: copyright law

  • Round One Goes to EBay Auctioneer in Battle to Sell Used Software

    Recently, I
    discussed the Vernor v. Autodesk case under the blog posting “Does Copyright
    Law Prohibit the Sale of Used Software on eBay?”    .  After Autodesk got a few of Timothy Vernor’s auction listings for used copies of AUTOCAD bounced off of eBay, Vernor filed a lawsuit asking for a declaratory judgment that his sale of the used software was legal.


    Rather than backing down, Autodesk asked for a dismissal of Vernor’s lawsuit or for a summary judgment ruling in its favor. The court refused Autodesk’s request. After doing numerous somersaults and back flips through diverging case law precedent, a federal court in the state of Washington decided that Autodesk had sold rather than licensed copies of AUTOCAD to a Seattle architecture firm.  The Seattle architecture firm subsequently sold the copies to Vernor. As a result, the first sale doctrine applies
    to the AUTOCAD copies and Vernor’s sale of the used AUTOCAD software on eBay is not
    copyright infringement.


    I wish I could stop my blog entry right here and tell you that the court's ruling is the end of the story.  But that would make life too easy.  So I continue . . .

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  • Does Copyright Law Prohibit the Sale of Used Software on eBay?

    The pending lawsuit
    of Vernor v. Autodesk might answer this question.

    Timothy Vernor makes his
    living as an eBay vendor selling used comic books, video games, software, and
    collectibles.  Autodesk, the maker of
    software application AUTOCAD, managed to get several of Vernor’s auctions shut
    down. Autodesk managed this feat by sending
    a take-down notice to eBay  claiming that
    Vernor’s sale of used versions of AUTOCAD is copyright infringement.

    Like many online sites,
    eBay relies on a safe harbor provision under the Digital Millennium Copyright
    Act (DMCA) to insulate it from copyright infringement liability for material
    posted by eBay online visitors and vendors. In order to qualify for that safe harbor, eBay must remove any material
    identified by the copyright owner as infringing. However, under the DMCA,     eBay vendors shut
    down by a takedown notice can get their auctions reinstated by sending eBay a
    counter notice claiming that the material is not infringing and was improperly
    removed. That’s exactly what Vernor did, triggering
    a DMCA dance of takedown notices and counter notices through which Autodesk
    repeatedly had Vernor’s auctions shut down and Vernor subsequently got them
    re-instated.

    Vernor
    ultimately tired of the game and has filed suit against Autodesk in which he
    asks a Washington federal court to declare his sale on eBay of used AUTOCAD copies as
    lawful. You can read the full complaint here.

    The
    most relevant issue in the case is application of copyright law’s First Sale Doctrine
    to software.

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