On Fri, 8 Nov 2002, Wolfgang Lenerz wrote:
> Unfortunetely, things aren't as clearcut as that.
>
> 1 - Remember that a licence is a licence to USE...
And First Sale Doctrine (international law) gives a right to sell the
floppy, manuals, leaflets, EPROMs or whatever.
> 2 - There is a huge difference between a user who has bought a
> licence to use a software and a reseller who buys the licence to
> resell the software.
If a person does not apply to be a reseller under the SMSQ/E license, they
are not a reseller. Therefore, they are a seller. I could buy ten copies,
and advertise them and sell them, perfectly legally. It wouldn't make a
difference if I were a business or private individual.
This is all highly academic, as the case in point is an organisation that
is selling what it hasn't bought, so therefore must be burning EPROMS with
SMSQ/E images, and therefore making counterfeit SMSQ/E's.
However, if they buy ten copies, and then incorporate those into a Q60 as
a part, nobody can stop them.
I am extremely clear on this because I had to handle this issue many times
over in my working life, when buying firmware to install in another device
to resell and the firmware author objected. We won our case based on 1st
sale doctrine and right to sell.
SMSQ/E is an ingredient of a computer, and D&D sell computers. If D&D did
not sell computers, the case would be slightly different, but they could
still probably win a case.
If they had bought the items in the first place, that is ;)
Dave
