Interesting Info on account login data cession - EU Court of Justice Ruling : Oracle vs UsedSoft

In Case C‑128/11

On those grounds, the Court (Grand Chamber) hereby rules:

  1. Article 4(2) of Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs must be interpreted as meaning that the right of distribution of a copy of a computer program is exhausted if the copyright holder who has authorised, even free of charge, the downloading of that copy from the internet onto a data carrier has also conferred, in return for payment of a fee intended to enable him to obtain a remuneration corresponding to the economic value of the copy of the work of which he is the proprietor, a right to use that copy for an unlimited period.

  2. Articles 4(2) and 5(1) of Directive 2009/24 must be interpreted as meaning that, in the event of the resale of a user licence entailing the resale of a copy of a computer program downloaded from the copyright holder’s website, that licence having originally been granted by that rightholder to the first acquirer for an unlimited period in return for payment of a fee intended to enable the rightholder to obtain a remuneration corresponding to the economic value of that copy of his work, the second acquirer of the licence, as well as any subsequent acquirer of it, will be able to rely on the exhaustion of the distribution right under Article 4(2) of that directive, and hence be regarded as lawful acquirers of a copy of a computer program within the meaning of Article 5(1) of that directive and benefit from the right of reproduction provided for in that provision.

In other words you can sell your login data legally in EU law space, however need to make sure the new “owner” agrees to EULA and ToS of EVE Online.

That means you could legally sell your game account for money? But if EULA prohibits that, what then? EULA will have to be changed? :thinking:

I wouldn’t have thought so, agreeing with any EULA generally involves waiving some of your rights in one way or another.

Ummm… nope…

The conclusion specifically excludes online services ( I-11/29 ) in the introduction. This includes setups where you only interact with the software through a client ( as in EVE , and office 365 and anything SaaS-y ** )

This means that CCP is still in their full right for not allowing to sell your account for Real Money™.
If you do want to use this case, you’d need to be in legal posession of the full licensed software suite ( aka the software that runs on the servers, with CCP permission… good luck with that…) , on a physical carrier.

** There’s a reason that where I work SaaS is not used. Ever. You do not own the data…

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well i read ther that you can sell a license and the program
but where you read you can sell your account?

there is no license so you cant sell or buy it
the copy of the program (EVE) is free to download

so whats the thing about what you write?

JuuR

Which is why most EULA’s would get tossed in a court of law, depending on jurisdiction.

EULA part 9 -

A. Software License

"Subject to the terms of the EULA, CCP grants you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable license to use the Software and its accompanying documentation solely in connection with accessing the System in order to play EVE using a single valid Account.

For each valid Account you maintain, you may install a copy of the Software on, and access the System from, a single computer or Game platform, and from a secondary computer if you so choose. You may make one (1) copy of the Software for backup or archival purposes. "

So basically you have a licence to use the software using an account.
Netflix would not permaban you if you share your account with your family/roommates. In EVE you cant login and get all content with one account aka X number of players playing simultaneously sharing one account, whiich you can do with Netflix.

Moved to out of pod

That entire quote talks about fee for an unlimited period.
Eve accounts are not a fee for unlimited use.
So it’s not applicable. Even if they hadn’t excluded online services

Nope. Law > contract > agreement > etc.

There is no waiving of rights through any agreement or contract if law stipulates specifications.

I’m sure CCP has been well aware of these proceedings, after all, it is not as if this kind of thing is not communicated with industry representation for extensive periods, and it is not as if external consultation or representation is not present in such proceedings.

As such, there is no reason to worry, as CCP has undoubtedly done their homework ahead of time. Whatever form that will take, is not the domain of its customers, but of CCP.

Now keep in mind that this applies to login data, it does not apply to proprietary commercial rights. For CCP it is something to consider some changes for, but it does not mean that sales of accounts is suddenly allowed for customers in those areas subject to the EU legal frameworks. Take note of the exclusions and the stipulations.

EVE is for unlimited use as long as the service is available. Proof analogy - a rental agreement where the time factor is not specified. In fact in my EULA with the rental company says so - that the contract is limited only, however nowhere its specified - a limitation requires a certain time data - lets say “only 3 months”. It has a huge impact on termination time in rental sphere as if your rental time is truly specified by time you have usually no right to continiue the rental agreement if the owner says no.

The software may be. So I guess you could sell your copy of free software. If it’s not considered a scam doing so legally.
Your account is not however.
You are confusing two separate things here.

Today the trend is going from “hard” software like on CDs towards SaaS. SaaS cannot be used without an account - Netflix, EVE, etc. Now lets assume you dont want to use it anymore - but there is another entity which is. It would be extremely unfair to not allow you to pass your contract to another person. Another analogy would be an agreement with a gym/library/public drive company etc. Here we we have “hardware” as a service but everything else is same. As far as I know nowhere in the western world you are forbidden to pass your contract/agreement with a gym/library/public drive company to another person.

For this we have this laws and rulings.

Uh yes. Most places you are forbidden from passing that sort of contract to a different person. Because they are time limited.

I don’t think it says that. But assuming it would say that then CCP would have to change the EULA because they are simply not above the law.

What this actually seems to be about is the reselling of software like windows, word or a game. It seems that some companies tried to block the reselling of their software by claiming that reselling the software is somehow a copyright violation.

I don’t think it says that as they are talking about a software license and the redistribution of that software to the new owner and not about an online account, which is completely separate.

Secondary computer? What about a tertiary one?

you have the license to use … its a rent you dont own a license
you cant sell because there is no real license

JuuR

Licenses cannot be sold.
You can’t sell a driver’s license, neither can the government sell licenses.
The fee associated with them are for other costs than the license.
The license granted by CCP is for intellectual property use.
CCP retains all intellectual property rights as to the ownership.

You can do anything you want if done right.
What that requires is not necessarily left for you to decide.
It’s far from impossible, no matter how complicated this may be.

You can’t do what is illegal (to do).
You also cannot do something which does circumvent security measures implemented for information systems.
A program, client, even server, are only parts of information system.
The community (using it, and designing it) is also part of it.
There can be more than 1 community.

A community causing damage, and claiming damage in court may not be right.
It depends.
They themselves can in fact cause damage, and try to hold a party liable so as to try to diminish their liability for other damages they know they have caused and that they are trying to divert the responsibility of onto others.

For instance, a community or small group of people of 2 or more do something illegal against CCP.
Of course, they are not the community which helps them, but even if they claimed damage, they’d still be wrong.

Edit:
If someone or an entity tried to steal my programs or work, system design and description, which I can apply for patents for, with patent pending, and even trade mark , later, with trade secret costs, copyright registration, it would be illegal.
If they tried to justify it in courts to circumvent the security implemented to record it, by seeking to forfeit it, it would be illegal.
Sure, a judge may grant this, but they may be liable in another courts.
Of course it would create legal conflicts, but those conflicts may have been illegally started by them to begin with.

You can also compared the years of those laws, and who worked to design them.

This EU court has never done anything recorded against me however, so our relation on those terms is good.
However, if and when I do get there, I would be wise to work with them quick to avoid marginalization.

Dont mix two things - drivers license is a certificate which confirms you can operate the vehicle. A license in broad law terms is the “OK” by the giver to allow you to use the product in any way. Lets say you bought a book - you do not hold any rights on the text but you can resell the book to another person.

In this specific case it was about reselling used Oracle Software/Keys to others. Oracle was against it and the UsedSoft was doing it. UsedSoft won the case.

Account bound Software would be another piece of meat, however following the same logic the court did I see no arguments against it. For good contra arguments I say thank the community in advance. The change of the account ownership affects the intellectual rights in zero fashion same as a reselling a book.