posted on May 11, 2000 11:49:42 AM new
I have been to a lot of auction site lately and found something I don't understand. I found there are a lot of sellers (especially on Yahoo) who sell copied software. Is this legal? And what exactly does "Section 117 of the US Copyright Laws" say about this? Thanks for any help.
posted on May 11, 2000 01:13:21 PM new
I'm aware that Sega, Nintendo & others have sued Yahoo and other auction sites for allowing Section 117 items to be sold on the basis they are illegal pirated goods.
It's been a long time since 117 was explained to me, from what I recall it entitles the legal, registered owner of software to have one back-up copy version just in case something goes wrong with their original.
Auction sellers don't require bidders to prove they own the original. Sega etc think bidders are buying the back-ups only therefore causing them to lose tons of money from legal sales of the originals.
I did a search on Yahoo the day the multi-million $ lawsuit was announced and found 700 auctions. The next day I found 0, maybe they only deleted them to investigate. I see there are 400+ running today so obviously Yahoo hasn't kept on top of it. Either that or they think the ads are legal.
posted on May 11, 2000 04:20:18 PM new
giveing away or selling copys of software is illegal. its warez piracy weather you give it away on warez web sites IRC or you sell it at auction.
if you are selling or giveing away software you had better have receipt to prove you bought it and its not a copy or you better have a contract with the person who wrote the program or one of there venders to sell it.
That is what yahoo has neighborhood watch for if you see auctions that are illegal or out of placew use it to complain and the auction will be removed no questions asked no names given
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