Last year we reported on the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) decision inOracle v UsedSoft (1), in which the court held that a licensee of computer software could legitimately sell it on a second hand basis, where the licence was akin to a ‘sale’ of the software.
We commented that, although the case was confined to software applications, it could have repercussions for the digital content industry if the principle that an effective sale meant the product could be resold on a used basis was applied more generally. More…