Autodesk Law Suit

[tabberone]

I have more information on my site under the Hall of Shame and also court cases but a brief recap.

At a yard sale, Tim Vernor bought some Autodesk software called AutoCAD (CAD stands for Computer Aided Design). This is expensive software and Tim decided why not try selling it on eBay? So he listed it. Oppps. Autodesk didn't like that and had eBay terminate his auction using the DMCA ("Digitial Millennium Copyright Act"). Tim fought back filing a counter notice and Autodesk didn't follow-up.

Autodesk attempted to have the case dismissed saying they had a contract on their software.

The judge in Washington having paid attention in all his classes stated that unless a licensing agreement requires a buyer to return the software when they are through then the First Sale doctrine applies.

This is interesting for more then Autodesk. A lot of companies, Microsoft comes to mind state you can't sell their sealed in a box software.

Wrong.