Re: [OT] Warranty laws WAS: iTunes & Linux (Debian)
Nic James Ferrier wrote:
> Johannes Wiedersich <johannes@physik.blm.tu-muenchen.de> writes:
>
>> I'm not a lawyer, but as I understand it, in Germany the legal situation
>> is that all these agreements are void, unless the company can prove that
>> you approved them _before_ you bought the item. For example anything of
>> the fine print about M$'s license agreements that is not clearly printed
>> on the outside of the box or explicitly agreed by you before buying your
>> laptop etc. is simply void. (Basic stuff like copyright is granted even
>> if not explicitly agreed, but *not* the fine print!)
>
> Is this right? Can we get some validation of this? It's excellent!
I have some validation, unfortunately only in German.
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/BJNR001950896.html#BJNR001950896BJNG023401377
http://irights.info/index.php?id=357
http://www.bmj.de/files/-/507/UrhG.pdf
According to wikipedia
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endbenutzer-Lizenzvertrag
those licenses are invalid in *Euprope* as far as they are not displayed
before purchase. (Note that for programs that are downloaded, different
(laxer) rules apply than for those bought on 'hard media'.)
Some more details:
- In Germany it is illegal to forbid a backup copy of any computer
program, as long as it is necessary to ensure future use of the program
(the only possible way for a software company to circumvent this, would
be to give at least two copies of their software to the customer. But
even then the customer would be allowed to make a backup copy, when one
of those gets damaged. )
- Even if the customer is informed about license conditions before
purchase, those parts are void that are not clearly written or that are
to the 'sole disadvantage of the customer' or those that infringe other
legal rights of the customer (including warranty). (This is not really
disambiguous and interestingly there are no high court decisions about
this regarding EULAs.)
- In Germany, it is legal to decompile a program, as long as one has a
legal copy of it and as long as the decompilation of the program is only
used to ensure the correct interaction of the program with a different
program. Any license condition refusing this is void (§69e UrhG).
- It is illegal to limit or forbid the (second hand or first hand) sale
of a program. There is a high court decision that OEM copies of software
can be sold without any accompanying hardware both from commercial
sellers and private ones, even if the EULA forbids this (a shop sold
OEM-Versions of Microsft software; M$ tried to sue and lost). It is also
illegal to forbid the private reselling of educational versions of
software to the general public.
IANAL, regards,
Johannes
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