Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Florida

Copyright Infringment EULA agreement

I purchased thousands $$$ worth of DVD sets with royalty free graphics & Animations on them from a leader in this market. The company sold me as many of 8 copies of some of these DVD sets of there products.

Then one day a guy called me from the company and told me they could not honor an order I had placed because you are not permitted to own more than one copy of each of there products as part of their EULA. Never mind they fact they had already sold me multiple copies of many of there products alreadyat this time. They didn't honor that order but shipped me orders for two other orders I had already entered on there website and yes these were for products they had already sold me before as well.

Now when I purchase these I bought a few form me. Which I clearly put aside for my own use. But all the remaining units I bought purely to sell on eBay. I never opened the software. Never put it in my machine. etc. I sold several of these kept buying more from them selling them. Etc.

Then one day they call me and say I am violating there EULA agreement.

If I never used the software or agreed to a EULA at the point of purchase. Then how am I bound to a EULA

What are my right if they take me to court for those I sold


Asked on 1/10/07, 5:45 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: Copyright Infringment EULA agreement

Most likely they are not going to bother about what you have already obtained, and if the EULA is only displayed when the software is loaded, you cannot be held to have accepted it. You should, to avoid controversy, unload your existing inventory and not attempt to purchase additional copies.

If you intend to continue to be (effectively) an unauthorized reseller, then you should consult with an attorney and evaluate with him the entire sequence of Web pages by which you are obtaining the software, to ensure that the site does not contain any contractual obligations or prohibitions that become part of the purchase transaction. Do realize, however, that the legal fees that you would incur in defending this kind of claim likely would swallow all of your profits; hence my recommendation that you sell off your inventory and move on to selling something else.

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 1/10/07, 5:56 pm


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