Nic James Ferrier wrote: > Johannes Wiedersich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> I'm not a lawyer, but as I understand it, in Germany the legal situation >> is that all these agreements are void, unless the company can prove that >> you approved them _before_ you bought the item. For example anything of >> the fine print about M$'s license agreements that is not clearly printed >> on the outside of the box or explicitly agreed by you before buying your >> laptop etc. is simply void. (Basic stuff like copyright is granted even >> if not explicitly agreed, but *not* the fine print!) > > Is this right? Can we get some validation of this? It's excellent!
I have some validation, unfortunately only in German. http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/ http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/BJNR001950896.html#BJNR001950896BJNG023401377 http://irights.info/index.php?id=357 http://www.bmj.de/files/-/507/UrhG.pdf According to wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endbenutzer-Lizenzvertrag those licenses are invalid in *Euprope* as far as they are not displayed before purchase. (Note that for programs that are downloaded, different (laxer) rules apply than for those bought on 'hard media'.) Some more details: - In Germany it is illegal to forbid a backup copy of any computer program, as long as it is necessary to ensure future use of the program (the only possible way for a software company to circumvent this, would be to give at least two copies of their software to the customer. But even then the customer would be allowed to make a backup copy, when one of those gets damaged. ) - Even if the customer is informed about license conditions before purchase, those parts are void that are not clearly written or that are to the 'sole disadvantage of the customer' or those that infringe other legal rights of the customer (including warranty). (This is not really disambiguous and interestingly there are no high court decisions about this regarding EULAs.) - In Germany, it is legal to decompile a program, as long as one has a legal copy of it and as long as the decompilation of the program is only used to ensure the correct interaction of the program with a different program. Any license condition refusing this is void (ยง69e UrhG). - It is illegal to limit or forbid the (second hand or first hand) sale of a program. There is a high court decision that OEM copies of software can be sold without any accompanying hardware both from commercial sellers and private ones, even if the EULA forbids this (a shop sold OEM-Versions of Microsft software; M$ tried to sue and lost). It is also illegal to forbid the private reselling of educational versions of software to the general public. IANAL, regards, Johannes -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
