Earlier this year, SIIA and Adobe met victory when a district court in California dismissed a man’s claim that he was protected by copyright law when he sold illegal software on eBay and elsewhere.

When Tony Kornrumpf was sued by SIIA on Adobe’s behalf for illegally selling authentic software, he filed a counterclaim asserting that Adobe and SIIA were liable for copyright misuse for overstepping the rights granted under the Copyright Act. Kornrumpf claimed that he was protected by the first sale doctrine, which allows the owner of a lawfully-made copy of a copyrighted work to dispose of that work as he or she see fits (For example, by reselling it, throwing it in the trash, lending it to a friend etc.) As its name implies, the first sale doctrine only applies where there is a first sale — not where the software is licensed.

On January 19, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed his counterclaim because he could not prove that he owned the copies of software he sold, or that SIIA and Adobe were misusing Adobe’s copyrights. Since the first sale defense did not apply, the court concluded that Adobe and SIIA were totally within their rights to sue Kornrumpf for copyright infringement for illegally selling the software, even though the copies he was selling were authentic.

Unfortunately, Kornrumpf is not alone in mistakenly believing that the copyright law allows licensed software to be resold online. He is one of many people who have learned this lessen the hard way through an SIIA lawsuit or other enforcement action.

The lesson here is to check the software license before attempting to resell any software online. Many software companies allow their licensees to resell their software under certain conditions. If you don’t check the license and comply with any conditions for resale (if allowed) you may find yourself at the wrong end of an SIIA enforcement action, like Mr. Kornrumpf.