Re: Adobe open source license -- is this licence free?
On 1/26/06, Alexander Terekhov <alexander.terekhov@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/26/06, Yorick Cool <yorick.cool@fundp.ac.be> wrote:
> [...]
> > And licensing software is not selling it.
>
> Yorick, Yorick. The courts disagree.
And then quotes as proof a huge chunk of text which includes
the explanation:
> A number of courts have held that the sale of software is the sale of
> a good within the meaning of Uniform Commercial Code. Advent Sys. Ltd.
> v. Unisys Corp., 925 F.2d 670, 676 (3d Cir. 1991); Step-Saver, 929
> F.2d at 99-100; Downriver Internists v. Harris Corp., 929 F.2d 1147,
> 1150 (6th Cir. 1991). It is well-settled that in determining whether a
> transaction is a sale, a lease, or a license, courts look to the
> economic realities of the exchange.
In other words: when money changes hand in the sale of software,
it's fair to say that the person getting the software has been sold
a licensed copy of that software (at least, when the sale is legal).
This shouldn't be very surprising. Many books get published under
an "all rights reserved" license, but the people who buy those
books are still allowed to turn around and transfer the copy to
someone else.
A person could even say that the "economic realities of the
exchange" are different when no money moves from the recipient
of the software to the copyright holder.
--
Raul
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