Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by deeths 4637 days ago
To clarify, I'm not trying to turn this banking/bitcoin discussion into a discussion about the business model, just point out that "solving" a legal problem problem in one way (moving the transaction) may introduce new problems (import/export). Also, software companies seem to have put some thought into how to restrict these sort of maneuvers.
2 comments
dobbsbob 4637 days ago
I could see Adobe and Microsoft sicking their army of lawyers on this site. I also see it is US domain/hosted which could be yoinked regardless of German law.

I would recommend a more bulletproof domain, and hosting in Germany or with PRQ in Sweden, who has lawyers to defend DRM claims. A good German host is BS web run by Henning Brauer an OpenBSD developer. http://www.bsws.de/en/

Also I think you're right this might fall under import/export laws

link
HalfPriceDigi 4637 days ago
My .com domain actually redirects to a .co.uk for the very reason that you mention :) And I made sure to host the site on servers in the UK as well!

Adobe has moved to a subscription based model, which makes the UsedSoft v Oracle ruling irrelevant. Microsoft may actually let you resell your used software, many companies do. In fact Adobe actually used to let you resell your used software so long as you didn't keep a copy of it.

The main companies that don't let you resell your used software are Valve (Steam), Apple (App Store), Google (Google Play) and Autodesk. I think that all of these companies are violating the UsedSoft v Oracle ruling by not allowing EU users to resell their apps, games and software, which is why I started halfpricedigital.com

link
alextingle 4636 days ago
Anything that undermines the awful Steam model gets my vote.
link
HalfPriceDigi 4637 days ago
Hi deeths, my site leaves it up to the seller (or buyer) to comply with restrictions on the usage of software. This seems to be how ebay deals with this issue as well. For example, there is a lot of used software on ebay that has restrictions regarding where software can be used (only in N. America, etc.)

The difference between my site and ebay is that because my company is based exclusively in Europe, my site isn't bound by the Vernor v Autodesk ruling and instead relies on the UsedSoft v Oracle ruling, at least when it comes to EU citizens. This is what allows my site to let EU citizens resell their used iOS apps or even their used Steam games. Other than the UsedSoft v Oracle issue, my site operates pretty much like ebay regarding software usage restrictions.

link