Buying a second hand license
by Luke Smith · in General Discussion · 06/20/2008 (3:47 pm) · 6 replies
I often see commercial software selling on ebay significantly cheaper. I would be concerned about buying some of these however. Are there any issues about buying a sencond hand license and software. Has anyone had any trouble with this in the past?
#2
06/21/2008 (2:48 am)
I'm not talking about Torque I have a license to both tge and tgea. I'm talking about commercial software packages like 3dsmax or visual studio/ 
#3
06/21/2008 (6:56 pm)
Before purchasing, I would suggest visiting the manufacturers website to read their eula.
#4
As for eBay... I would assume any second-hand software is illegal.
Note: I've also seen 3DS Max for sale on E-Bay, and you will notice on the Autodesk site that it is illegal to resell any of their software.
07/19/2008 (8:38 pm)
If you are a business, BIG RED FLAGS. Don't take any shortcuts when it comes to purchasing software. Always purchase from a reputiable dealer (Best Buy) or the company who made the software.As for eBay... I would assume any second-hand software is illegal.
Note: I've also seen 3DS Max for sale on E-Bay, and you will notice on the Autodesk site that it is illegal to resell any of their software.
#5
citizenvox.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/public-citizen-wins-against-anti-consumer-co...
Interesting.... :P
07/19/2008 (11:05 pm)
I wonder how legal or legally enforceable the non-transferable clause in the license is since this recently has gone through its first pass in the courts:citizenvox.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/public-citizen-wins-against-anti-consumer-co...
Interesting.... :P
#6
I think this ruling brings up an interesting question. Physical items tend to have a limited number of re-sales and go down in value as they deteriorate. Books get scuffed, spines damaged, pages torn. Games have their boxes damaged and eventually CD's scratch. Likewise for Cars and other products, so eventually any given item loses value even in the second hand market and is often sufficient enough that many will pay more to get a pristine version.
If courts decide that licenses cannot restrict the consumers ability to sell on goods they no longer want, how will this affect purely digital media. For example downloadable games or eBooks, where the product you would be receiving after the 1000th sale is identical to the product the very first person bought? For arguments sake, lets assume a product is locked to a given customer, but support is in place to allow it to be transferred in order for the consumer to sell their product.
The original developer or author wouldn't receive any money from the sales, much like they do not with the current second hand market, yet with the current market at some point even second hand products lose enough value that you often can't even give them away, this would never be the case with digital products.
07/21/2008 (5:18 am)
Even if a product allowed license transfers, chances are good that if it's on EBay, you'll be receiving a cd-r with a copy of the software rather than a legit product. Personally I'd avoid EBay at all costs.Quote:I wonder how legal or legally enforceable the non-transferable clause in the license is since this recently has gone through its first pass in the courts:
citizenvox.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/public-citizen-wins-against-anti-consumer-co...
I think this ruling brings up an interesting question. Physical items tend to have a limited number of re-sales and go down in value as they deteriorate. Books get scuffed, spines damaged, pages torn. Games have their boxes damaged and eventually CD's scratch. Likewise for Cars and other products, so eventually any given item loses value even in the second hand market and is often sufficient enough that many will pay more to get a pristine version.
If courts decide that licenses cannot restrict the consumers ability to sell on goods they no longer want, how will this affect purely digital media. For example downloadable games or eBooks, where the product you would be receiving after the 1000th sale is identical to the product the very first person bought? For arguments sake, lets assume a product is locked to a given customer, but support is in place to allow it to be transferred in order for the consumer to sell their product.
The original developer or author wouldn't receive any money from the sales, much like they do not with the current second hand market, yet with the current market at some point even second hand products lose enough value that you often can't even give them away, this would never be the case with digital products.
Torque Owner Ben Versaw