eBaying software

[Andy Wardley]

Pete Sergeant wrote:
> I bought a copy of Adobe Acrobat recently, that it turns out I don't
> need. I bought it from the Apple store in Chicago, so returning it is a
> little hard. Can I legally eBay this? Any ideas?

Yes.  It's legally yours to transfer through gift or sale.  If you're 
interested in the detail, then read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

It's quite likely that Adobe's shrink-wrap license says that you have 
"licensed" the software from them, not "bought" it.  It may even go on 
to say that as a result this license is non-transferable (i.e. you can't 
sell it).

However, this is nonsense.

They cannot affect your statutory rights which are quite clear (in this 
country) about first sale.  As long as you have the original media of a 
full retail version (i.e. not an education or other discounted version) 
then its yours to sell.  There's nothing Adobe can write on the label of 
the box to change that.

IANAL of course.

A