Industry news

Software firm loses resell case

A software firm has seen an American man walk out of court free to resell its product, after losing a licensing case, it has been reported.

Timothy Vernor, 38, of Seattle, was taken to court after he was found to be reselling second-hand copies of Autodesk's AutoCAD on eBay from 2005-07, according to Outlaw.com.

But a US court ruled he was not doing anything wrong, despite the manufacturer claiming its software was licensed rather than sold to the individual.

The website added that many software manufacturers say their products are sold to the user as a license, with resale being forbidden.

However, the court ruled in Mr Vernor's favour stating the transfer of the software to the user was a sale and not a licence agreement.

The judge in the case, Richard Jones, told the website: "If there were no license, there is no dispute that Mr Vernor's resale of the AutoCAD packages would be legal."

Meanwhile, businesses in Manchester are being targeted in a clampdown on illegal software after the British Software Alliance revealed the city is the second worst for software piracy in the UK.