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Originally Posted by lilman
Every company has its own terms of service regardling license transfer. From what I've read about software licenses, most companies will let you transfer a license, although some require you to fill out a form first. In any case, when you transfer a license you relinquish your right to use the product, and any additional copies you have must be disabled/deleted.
I don't know Apple's stance on license transfer, but as your apps are tied to your iTunes account I don't know of a way to transfer your license(s) to another iTunes account. You may want to contact Apple directly and ask them.
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Legal aspects aside, from a technical perspective it would be easy.
The apps on iPad are active.
Personally, I have 2 accounts active on my iPad (my old German one with lots of iPhone apps and some localised iPad apps. And my actual US one for the majority of apps, movies and TV shows). This proves, you can have 2 accounts at the same time on the very same unit.
So I could sell my iPad, loaded with apps. The buyer could use those on the iPad and add his own apps with his own account. The only downside: He can't access my account, so he won't be able to update my former apps.
Alternatively, I could delete my credit card from my account and hand this account to the buyer.
Technically, I think this should be possible. And I even could prove, that I'm not using the account anymore. First of all, the new owner can change the password, even the login-name/mail address (he most likely would do this anyway, to protect his credit card). Second, this could be proven via login/IP.
But from a legal perspective, this doesn't seem to be allowed. One could argue that's okay for "cheap" content.
If a game on Nintendo DS costs, let's say, € 40 and on iPad it's only € 5, it's not much harm done. You'd resell the NDS with a loss of at least € 20, the loss for the iPad game can't be more than € 5.
But in the example of eBooks, they often cost the same as your average paperback, sometimes even a hardcover book. Then you loose the entire invest with eBooks, whereas you easily could resell the physical book.
"worst case scenarios" of massive fraud aside: Let's assume, your average user has his iPad for 2 years. He buys 100 apps for € 500. He moves on (maybe he's bored, maybe he's got a new hobby, maybe he just changes systems). He may be able to sell his iPad. But what about the content (in many cases the way bigger invest)? Should he just delete his eBooks/apps/movies/TV shows? That's just an inefficient system, compared to physical media as DVDs, cartridges and so on. And not because you're not allowed to resell your stuff. But only because the providers aren't able to avoid 10 copies being sold.
But why is the honest customer, who wants to resell 1 unit and the dedicated content with it, punished by that inefficiency?