Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
That's not true. A retailer can not put anything they want into a contract and then attempt to enforce it, even if the customer agrees. Companies put terms and conditions in agreements all the time that are legally invalid. For example, Amazon can not put terms in a license that force the customer to give up their rights or that override existing law. At least, not easily, and certainly not in something like an online click through agreement. You are definitely not governed by such terms, although some Companies would like you to believe that you are (which is why they still put them in).
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FYI, read about yet another example of this today.
An individual was buying legal copies of software and then reselling them on Ebay. The software manufacturer sued him for violation of the license terms and copyright infringement.
US courts ruled in favor of the individual. Their finding was that as long as the terms did not make it clear that the company could take the software back, then a transfer of ownership occurred and the individual "bought" the software, regardless of the fact that the manufacturer's agreement stated it was only a license. Because the individual bought it, the right of first sale applies, and reselling it on Ebay is perfectly legal.
The court rejected the manufacturer's claims that it violated their terms and conditions, and that reselling was copyright infringement and encouraged piracy.
This is pretty consistent with other cases, where the courts have ruled that as long as the customer has an expectation that they can keep the product, then regardless of what the retailer's terms and conditions state, it is a sale not a license.
In other words, retailers are not allowed to deliberately try to confuse the customer. If it looks like a sale, then it is a sale. They can't claim in the fine print that you are only buying a license.