You're probably just a lowly licensee
Ever since at least the Atari 2600, kids could make their allowance stretch further by reselling their video games. And when you moved up to flashier software, you had the option to pass along your old programs, so long as you deleted your copy.
There have always been limits on what you can do with the software you bought, but many of those were scaled back far from their initial design. Nintendo wasn't too keen on the nascent game rental business, but we have Blockbuster and Gamefly. Computer companies were reluctant to let one person use the same software on both his desktop and laptop, but now all kinds of multi-user licenses are the norm. And there are parallels in the movie industry when you look at the history of the VCR.
But even as changes in law used to consistently favor the consumer, in this new Internet-centric world, companies are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep a grip on their content . . . and they are winning.
Today, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously vacated Vernor v. Autodesk, ruling that content providers like Microsoft and Adobe could include language preventing the consumer from reselling the software he purchased. According to today's decision, a consumer only licenses the software, so pretty much anything a company puts in a end-user license agreement flies.
The "first sale" doctrine, which for more than a hundred years has recognized a user's right to resell a copyrighted work, was ruled inapplicable to "to a person who possesses a copy of the copyrighted work without owning it, such as a licensee."
Of course, this is a major blow to businesses like eBay and GameStop, but even public libraries are in jeopardy.
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