Vernon v. Autodesk

Vernon v. Autodesk

This episode of Vondran Legal Hour features an overview of the case of Vernon v. Autodesk and asks and answers the question of "Can I buy software at a garage or office sale and sell it on an internet auction website such as eBay without risking federal copyright infringement?"

This is a very imporant question, and often misunderstood.  Most people think when they "buy" software that they become the "owner" of the software and thus have a legal right to sell the software online.  This is not always true and it is very important to look at the terms of the Software Licensing Ageement.

If you are acting outside the scope of the licensing agreement, you may winde up posting the software for sale on your eBay "power seller" account only to find out the software company sends out a "take down" notice that might result in getting your eBay account (or Amazon.com account) shut down.

Federal Copyeright law protects software products and the members of the Business Software Alliance ("BSA") which is comprised of some of the largest software companies in the world - such as Adobe, Microsoft, Autodesk, Apple, Bentley, Symantec etc., take issues of alleged "software piracy" very serious.  They even have an "anti-piracy" hotline that gives rewards to ex-employees who blow the whistle on their employers use of unilcensed (meaning unpaid for) software, or the failure to purchase the software from authorized resellers.