Question: Adobe Systems, Inc. is a leading software publishing company. SoftMan Products Company distributes computer software products primarily through its website www.buycheapsoftware.com. Adobe distributes its products,

Adobe Systems, Inc. is a leading software publishing company. SoftMan Products Company distributes computer software products primarily through its website www.buycheapsoftware.com. Adobe distributes its products, including certain collections of products (Collections), through license agreements with distributors. Each Adobe Collection is also accompanied by an End User License Agreement (EULA) that sets forth the terms of the license between Adobe and the end user for that specific product. The EULA is electronically recorded on the computer disk, and customers are asked to agree to its terms when they attempt to install the software. The EULA includes a provision that prohibits licensees from transferring or assigning any individual Adobe product that was originally distributed as part of a Collection, unless it is transferred with all the software in the original Collection. Adobe filed a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction against SoftMan on the ground that SoftMan had violated the terms of Adobe’s EULA by breaking apart various Adobe Collection packages and distributing the individual pieces of them as single products. SoftMan defended on the ground that it was not subject to the EULA terms, because it did not install the software before reselling it to end users. Who should prevail and why? [SoftMan Products Co., L.L.C. v. Adobe Systems, Inc., 171 F. Supp. 2d 1075 (C.D. Cal. 2001); contra Adobe Systems, Inc. v. Stargate Software, Inc., 216 F. Supp. 2d 1051 (N.D. Cal. 2002).]

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For some time now the courts have wrestled with the issue of whether to characterize transactions involving software as sales or licenses This distinction is important because it affects the extent to ... View full answer

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