That statement is not correct for the European Union.
Have you noticed that the OP did not even care to participate further in the thread ?
You always buy a right to use something - a license. it does not pass any right to “own” the item. That’s a difference.
If you would own a piece of software than you could resell, re-engineer or extract contents as you see fit, would you?
Not really, all these actions are restricted by your end-user-license-agreement.
[quote=281351:@Tomas Jakobs]You always buy a right to use something - a license. it does not pass any right to “own” the item. That’s a difference.
If you would own a piece of software than you could resell, re-engineer or extract contents as you see fit, would you?
Not really, all these actions are restricted by your end-user-license-agreement.[/quote]
In Europe, law supersedes end user license agreement. For instance, licenses are freely transferable, even if the publisher says otherwise.
No, Michel nailed it.
quite right… as far as I know (correct me if I am missing something) this is only valid for OEM, Standard or volume licensed Software like CALs or Terminal-Server Bundles. But when talking about individual developed software you still can’t do this that easy. It depends from case to case.
As owner of my software I still have the right to assign the priviledge to use my software to whom I want e.g. if a radical party or organization would use my software I still could revoke their use-right.
[quote=281363:@Tomas Jakobs]quite right… as far as I know (correct me if I am missing something) this is only valid for OEM, Standard or volume licensed Software like CALs or Terminal-Server Bundles. But when talking about individual developed software you still can’t do this that easy. It depends from case to case.
As owner of my software I still have the right to assign the priviledge to use my software to whom I want e.g. if a radical party or organization would use my software I still could revoke their use-right.[/quote]
That is not correct: EU highest court says software licence terms can be ignored
I can see it coming - for Europe product X is only available as SaaS - a subscription to an online version that means you NEVER have a copy + license on your machine that you could transfer to someone else. For everyone else you can get a copy to install on your machine.
And part of the fallout from that ruling did say that the publisher could charge a fee for transferring a license from the original holder to the new holder so the new holder could obtain “support” - and there was no comment on what that fee might be.
They could charge 100% of the original license fee to “transfer” it to the new holder.
If a license is sold to a customer, he can do whatever he wants he owns this license. Xojo has in its EULA: “this product, which is licensed - not sold - to you”. Despite the text “not sold” it is in EU law a sale, a sale of a license.
You missed the point.
Yes - you can give/sell your license key to someone else.
Say you have a Pro license.
When you sell/give this license to someone else they wont be able to to register for the web site as a validated customer, or get access to things like beta’s etc without contacting Xojo Inc. Basically they wont be able to use that license to its fullest.
And Xojo Inc could charge a fee for making that transfer complete on our end so the person CAN use it to its fullest.
The ruling put NO restriction on such a fee for this.
It did specifically state that the original owner of the license MUST , in order to avoid infringing the exclusive right of reproduction of a computer program which belongs to its author, laid down in Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2009/24, make his own copy unusable at the time of its resale.
And the original publisher has the right to make sure the original copy is unusable 87 Moreover, a copyright holder such as Oracle is entitled, in the event of the resale of a user licence entailing the resale of a copy of a computer program downloaded from his website, to ensure by all technical means at his disposal that the copy still in the hands of the reseller is made unusable.
[quote=281386:@Norman Palardy]Say you have a Pro license.
When you sell/give this license to someone else they wont be able to to register for the web site as a validated customer, or get access to things like beta’s etc without contacting Xojo Inc. Basically they wont be able to use that license to its fullest.
And Xojo Inc could charge a fee for making that transfer complete on our end so the person CAN use it to its fullest.[/quote]
In the US. Not in the EU.
Sounds like that’s from the EU ruling.
Its quoted directly from the ruling
There are lots of implications
http://www.linklaters.com/Insights/Publication1403Newsletter/TMT-News-November-2012/Pages/EU-Used-Soft-Oracle-ECJ-approves-sale-used-software.aspx
And, FWIW, Xojo Inc does not have “unlimited term licenses” like Oracle did which is extremely relevant
Our licenses are for a limited term (annual) and those license terms are enforced (you get no updates after your license expires)
This is VERY different from Oracles licenses
There are still questions that have yet to be tested in EU courts
That said we have not, to my knowledge, EVER prevented anyone from making such a transfer OR charged a fee for making this happen
[quote=281392:@Norman Palardy]And, FWIW, Xojo Inc does not have “unlimited term licenses” like Oracle did which is extremely relevant.
Our licenses are for a limited term (annual)…[/quote]
No, there is no difference. Xojo does not have a limited term as you can use a purchased version forever. The EULA also does not impose a time limit.
Oracles license was “pay us money + annual maintenance and you get updates forever”
Xojo’s is not that way
And the Xojo license itself DOES have an expiration date built in
They’re not exactly the same
The license remains valid eternally. The EULA doesn’t say anything else.
I think there is a misunderstanding what “to own” really means. If you own something, then you have all rights. You can give it away, you can sell it you even can manipulate as you see fit. But you do not own software, you never did. You always buy the right to use something based upon a license. Basically if any software is tight with services than it can not be sold easily. It depends what contract you do have. That’s the reason why Microsoft doesn’t give any support on Systembuilds (OEM) Windows version. You have to contact the reseller.
In the EU you do. That is exactly the point. Within the EU buying a software license means you buy the software (“as is” of course). You do not buy the right to use it. You are free to do with it whatever you choose. More or less all EULA paragraphs of all software companies small or big are futile.