People apprehensive about used-book and CD stores becoming obsolete have a reason to cheer, as a Seattle judge ruled against Autodesk in resale case; thereby favoring the plaintiff, Timothy Vernor, who argued that he had right to sell second-hand software!

Vernor had filed the lawsuit after Autodesk urged eBay to remove the Autocad software he was trying to sell on the online auction site. At the behest of Autodesk, eBay banned Vernor from its site.

In his complaint, Vernor argued that since it was the legitimate versions of the software that he was trying to sell via eBay, and not illegal copies, there was no question of violating any laws, as Autodesk claimed he had done. Saying that it does not "sell" its software, but only licenses it, Autodesk had argued that the very nature of its business disallowed buyers to resell its software.

However, ruling aside Autodesk's arguments, Judge Richard Jones from the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, specified in his ruling: "No one would characterize a person's possession as something other than ownership."

Denying Autodesk's copyright misuse charges against Vernor, and validating secondhand sales, Judge Jones said: "The court cannot characterize Autodesk's decision to let its licensees retain possession of the software forever as something other than a transfer of ownership, despite numerous restrictions on that ownership."