Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on January 18, 2004 07:26 PM
If you feel this way I suggest you try reselling your Microsoft products on e-bay and see how well the law supports your "right" to do so<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:). I also recall a recent merger by two public companies where Microsoft successfully sued to prevent the successor organization from claiming rights to use software of the prior business entities. Perhaps you can kindly explain to them that they did not need to pay Microsoft for the privilege of repurchasing their existing software again and explain that they should receive this money back?!
I think you are correct that it's likely true that most software license agreements are agreements of adhesion, as they are specifically created under contract law because copyright includes fair use, and because other commercial law such as the right of resale, would normally protect the consumer from such things. Hence, explicitly to override these real rights, a contract is used as condition of sale where these rights are explicitly disclaimed as a condition of sale, and this is how most proprietary software licensing works today. However, with things like the DMCA, it may be possible to find other means within these new laws to deny consumers basic rights without need to resort to (judicially re-interpretable and localized) contract law.
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Re:Ownership is determined by copyright
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 18, 2004 07:26 PMI think you are correct that it's likely true that most software license agreements are agreements of adhesion, as they are specifically created under contract law because copyright includes fair use, and because other commercial law such as the right of resale, would normally protect the consumer from such things. Hence, explicitly to override these real rights, a contract is used as condition of sale where these rights are explicitly disclaimed as a condition of sale, and this is how most proprietary software licensing works today. However, with things like the DMCA, it may be possible to find other means within these new laws to deny consumers basic rights without need to resort to (judicially re-interpretable and localized) contract law.
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