[License-discuss] Reverse Engineering and Open Source Licenses

[Maximilian]

On 11/03/2015 01:07, John Cowan wrote:
> No, of course not.  But when I buy the book, the first-sale right is
> exhausted; when I buy proprietary software, it is not, and I have no
> right to resell.  The difference is that the book is purchased
> whereas the proprietary software is only licensed.

Just to add here that in the European Union, following the Usedsoft v
Oracle decision (case C-128/11), the right of the developer/copyright
owner to control distribution is indeed exhausted after first sale and
proprietary licensed software *can* be resold despite any clause in the
licence to the contrary.

Of course, this requires that the licence is not for a fixed time period
and that any DRM controls would not be interferred with in the process,
but hey it's a start!

--
Maximilian