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Software Licenses and First-Sale
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Tuesday, October 29 @ 15:20:02 EST Contracts

Yahoo is running a story about Microsoft's objections to the sale of Kmart's Internet unit, Bluelight.com. The $8.4 million sale of Bluelight to United Online, Inc. would include the sale of software licensed from Microsoft. "The licenses that debtors (Kmart) have of Microsoft's products are licenses of copyrighted materials and, therefore, may not be assumed or assigned with [sic] Microsoft's consent," said Microsoft.

An unfortunate result of software licensing: when you sell your business, you may not have anything to sell.

 
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Impact on accounting? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 29 @ 15:57:21 EST
So the resale value of MS software is zero, as it can't be resold.

What's the impact of this going to be on companys' accounting?

If a software purchase has a significant resale value, then it would seem sensible to treat the purchase as capital expenditure and amortise the expenditure over a period of time. (Do companys do this?)

But if the software has no resale value, then that doesn't seem reasonable - it should be treated as an immediate expense.

Any accounting types want to venture an opinion?


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EFF should make First Sale their #1 (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 29 @ 19:38:19 EST
Now that the 2600 case is over and Eldred is in the hands of the Supreme Court, I'd like to see them take on First Sale.

Courts are very divided over the "licence vs sale" thing, and it would be very nice to take the fight over shrinkwrap contracts up to the Supremes. There are very meaty issues of Federal IP policy and preemption of state law, and there are juicy issues of contract formation in the digital age.


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Re: Software Licenses and First-Sale (Score: 1)
by 188 on Tuesday, October 29 @ 23:35:56 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.1715.blogspot.com
And while your at it why not contract away some fair-uses. Hello UCITA/UCC2B.


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Re: Software Licenses and First-Sale (Score: 1)
by MurphysLaw on Wednesday, October 30 @ 09:20:32 EST
(User Info | Send a Message)
This is a bankrupcy court. They have fairly wide discretion when it comes to restructuring a company during bankrupcy. I can't imagine that the bankrupcy court will give much notice to MS's complaint.


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