Restrictive practices?

[Nick W]

I'm currently trying to sell my Alibre Design Professional licence, as the software, good though it is, doesn't do what I need.

Having suffered the extortionate practice of having to buy it from the UK distributor in the first place at worse than $1 to the pound, they are now trying to tell me that

The software can be used outside of the UK but the license has to be registered to an individual or company within England, Scotland, Wales, Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Does anyone here know if this is legal? Seems to me it's my licence, I bought it, and I should be able to sell it to whoever I like.

 

[Dave S]

No doubt the company would say that you agreed to the terms and conditions of the licence when you bought it.

I think a lot of software licences are considerably more restrictive than many realise. I've certainly come across software where the T&C forbid selling the licence under any circumstances.

I've no idea what the law says about it, though - possibly not a lot until it's tested.

Dave

 

[mr]

No doubt the company would say that you agreed to the terms and conditions of the licence when you bought it.

I think a lot of software licences are considerably more restrictive than many realise. I've certainly come across software where the T&C forbid selling the licence under any circumstances.

I've no idea what the law says about it, though - possibly not a lot until it's tested.

Dave

I think Dave is correct in all areas. The t&cs are key and very probably they have tied up all areas so to speak. Whether or not the t&c s are enforceable or whether or not the company issuing would pursue a prosecution is a different issue though. Making the t&c s restrictive is perfectly legal that's the point of t&cs after all. I license some of my company's software to clients and give them non exclusive use in perpetuity while retaining proprietary rights which prevents the client reselling theyre license (although there are also other issues that would prevent them from doing this). If the license was broken I would pursue the issue but then the cost levels between my software (which has a potential maximum market of 20 purchasers) and Alibres software are totally different.

Cheers Mike

 

[Nick W]

Just spoken to the FSB legal advice line, and they reckon I don't stand a chance of arguing the case! :evil:

BTW I can thoroughly reccommend membership of the Federation of Small Businesses. Apart from the free legal and tax advice line (for your business use and personal use for all members of your family), you get insurance to cover the costs of tax inspections, and reductions on all sorts of services. See here.

 

[Jake]

Check the actual license terms on the version of the software you have, as that's what counts, not what Alibre says now. I doubt they will be wrong, but you never know.

If the license says that, it says that. There's no room to complain about the extent of the license, because the license (to the defined extent) is all you purchased, and no more.

 

[Nick W]

Yeah, the licence has lots of blah about export restrictions.

 

[mr]

Check the actual license terms on the version of the software you have, as that's what counts, not what Alibre says now. I doubt they will be wrong, but you never know.

If the license says that, it says that. There's no room to complain about the extent of the license, because the license (to the defined extent) is all you purchased, and no more.

I find the hardest part of explaining to clients what licensing means is that bit about the license being the bit they are actually buying.
Cheers Mike

 

[RogerS]

But...and this is a big but....some T's and C's can be judged to be too unfair and one-sided and hence unenforceable.

 

[Nick W]

But, and this is a bigger but, Alibre requires an internet connection and it logs into their server before it will fire up. Short and Curlies springs to mind.