Software License vs. Sale: Copyright’s “First Sale”
An interesting case comes out of the West earlier this month under Copyright law’s “first sale” doctrine, involving computer software under a license agreement.
Copyright’s “first sale” doctrine
The “first sale” doctrine involves this concept: If you buy a copyrighted work (say, a painting, or a book, or – as in this case – software – you have an unqualified right to transfer your copy of that work to anybody as you please. That doesn’t mean you can make additional copies and sell those too, but generally it does mean that you are free to resell something that you purchase. (As will be discussed below, the operative term is “purchased”.)
The doctrine was first recognized by the Supreme Court in a 1908 case, and later codified by Congress into the Copyright Act in the 1976 amendments to the Act.
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