Hacker Timesnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Depends on where you live. At least in Germany (and I think the whole EU), EULAs are meaningless.


I can't find that for EULA's proper (would surprise me, too, as that would allow anyone to pirate any shrink-wrapped software), but EULAs cannot prohibit selling your license: that was upheld for software bought by download, too: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012...:

"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"

You can even buy the right to download future updates:

"Therefore the new acquirer of the user licence, such as a customer of UsedSoft, may, as a lawful acquirer of the corrected and updated copy of the computer program concerned, download that copy from the copyright holder’s website."


Afaik, if the EULA is only shown after the sale has already taken place, it is basically meaningless around here. But IANAL and only relaying what I heard on the internet.


The lawyer I spoke to was Dutch. There is some unclarity about EULA's sold to consumers, I think the general idea of the consumer protection is that the consumer should have seen the EULA before they paid for the product.

That said, it says on the box that the software is only for Apple hardware, and I think even only as an upgrade for an existing OSX install.

If you're a company, then EULAs are definitely binding, no matter where you are.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: