Tjeerd Overdijk, Polo van der Putt and Eva de Vries, together with Thomas Schafft, lawyer in Munich, have written an article on second hand software. The previous year saw some interesting developments with regard to the resale of (used) software licenses. In the U.S. the position of software vendors to control distribution seems to be strengthened. In Europe, on the other hand, the position of software vendors might be weakened. A Dutch court found that a purchaser of used software does not need a license from the software vendor. In Germany, the highest civil court referred questions to the CJEU with respect to resale of downloaded software. Market players will have to cope with diverging approaches in their markets and ongoing legal uncertainty.

The article has been publsihed in Computer Law Review International (CRi).