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Public Citizen wins against anti-consumer copyright claim

May 21, 2008 by Greg Beck

When Seattle resident Tim Vernor put a used copy of software for sale on eBay, the software’s maker, Autodesk, demanded that eBay cancel the listing. Although Vernor was selling an authentic, original copy of Autodesk’s software, the company pointed to a “license agreement” contained in the software’s box that prohibited anyone from selling or giving the software away. Vernor had purchased the software at a garage sale and had never agreed to abide by Autodesk’s terms, but the company nevertheless argued that Vernor’s failure to abide by the licensing terms infringed its copyright.

These kinds of abusive licensing terms are increasingly common and are bad for consumers. When a company prohibits resale, it eliminates the secondary market for used copies of the product. And with fewer copies on the market, competition is reduced and prices go up.

Vernor, however, refused to back down, instead repeatedly putting Autodesk’s software up for sale on eBay. Each time, Autodesk demanded that the sale be terminated, until its repeated claims of copyright infringement caused eBay to shut down Vernor’s account entirely. Vernor then filed suit and, represented by Public Citizen, argued for a ruling that he did not need Autodesk’s permission to resell its software.

Today, a federal court agreed with Public Citizen, rejecting Autodesk’s expansive claims of copyright infringement and holding that the company cannot prevent Vernor from reselling authentic copies of its software. The decision is good news for consumers and signals that companies cannot use a form contract to restrict competition and curtail consumers’ traditional right to resell products that are lawfully theirs.

The court’s decision and other documents in the case are available here.

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Posted in Internet Free Speech, Litigation | 3 Comments

3 Responses

  1. on May 23, 2008 at 2:06 pm More on eBay, Autodesk and digital copyright law « citizenvox.org

    […] 23, 2008 by Joe Newman There’s some buzz about our win this week against Autodesk and its attempt to keep entrepreneur Timothy Vernor from selling second-hand copies of its software […]


  2. on May 25, 2008 at 1:00 am Shaun Snapp

    eBay is continuing to abuse the law in this area. I just had my listing removed for a used version of Windows Vista. eBay has been playing this game for quite some time, but I am concerned that they still won’t change their business practices.


  3. on June 10, 2008 at 3:37 pm Supreme Court patent decision should give some comfort to consumers « citizenvox.org

    […] goods. The same practice is used by copyright owners to limit the resale of software and music. In Vernor v. Autodesk, Public Citizen recently won an important victory against a software company that attempted to […]



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