[Am-info] US court ruling nixes software EULA restrictions

[Paul Rickard]

|-- In an intriguing ruling picked up by LinuxJournal's Don Marti, a US 
district court has given encouragement to software users who want to 
extricate themselves from restrictive software licenses.

The judge, in the case Adobe vs Softman heard in the Central District of 
California, has ruled that consumers can resell bundled software, no 
matter what the EULA, or End User License Agreement, stipulates. 
Specifically, the ruling decrees that software purchases be treated as 
sales transactions, rather than explicit license agreements. In other 
words, consumers should have the same rights they'd enjoy under existing 
copyright legislation when buying a CD or a book. They can't make copies, 
but they can resell what they own. ...

   This will do more damage to Microsoft than the entire antitrust trial.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23073.html
http://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/CACD/RecentPubOp.nsf/bb61c530eab0911c882567cf0
05ac6f9/574aa79ff518021188256aed006ea2dc/$FILE/CV00-04161DDP.pdf



======== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign =======
--------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------

  "Even as a longtime critic of the company, I must admit that
   Microsoft occasionally flirts with the truth. Well, perhaps 'flirt'
   is too strong a word. Let's just say Microsoft sometimes honks and 
   waves as it drives by her house."
       -InfoWorld Editor Nicholas Petreley, 06-14-99