Hi all,
I’ve got a whole bunch of these CDs, some as many as seven years old. Rather than throw them all away, I was thinking about selling them on eBay. I figure I may not have use for them (a lot of the software on them is outdated), but someone with an older computer might find them valuable.
My question is, is this legal, and is this allowed by eBay? This is a link to eBay’s policy on software sales, but I’m not sure if any of the paragraphs are relevant to me.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
IANAL, but I would think you are fine in selling those disks.
As long as you do not have any of the software on another computer you are not violating copyright, and those disks aren’t promotional and therefore covered under an agreement (as many promotional books and CDs) disallowing sales (not that anybody pays any attention to those agreements).
Further, those discs aren’t food, so I do not believe there are any FDA rules regarding being “packaged for individual sale.”
Now, who in the world would buy those CDs is a completely different story.
You mean the ones that come with all kinds of sample software that invariably screws up your computer when you install it? Who in the world would want to buy those, unless you find some Arts & Crafts maven who thinks she can make them into ashtrays and sell them?
I would bet that most of the software won’t run on today’s fast computers. I have a 486 processor in my 1996 Acer, and most of the new software that comes out is designed for a Pentium of some kind. It all has to be “slowed down” for my computer with special software so the game (or whatever) will run.
Anyway, good luck at finding a market!
P.S. I’d look to make sure none of them were marked “Not For Resale” or “Licensed For Use by PC Magazine Only”.
Thanks for your posts, obfus and DDG.
Like I said, some person with an older computer might find them useful. My mom, for example, has a 7 year-old Power Mac, and hers can’t run a lot of the new software out there now. These CDs have bailed me out a few times. I know that no one with a new computer will have use for them (heh, like me, which is why I’m selling them…), but I figure it won’t hurt anything to give it a try on eBay.
I’ve got nearly 200 of them, and upon inspection last night I found that some are from books, too, so I might just sell them as “assorted CDs” or something nonspecific like that.
Thanks again. 
By the way, DDG, it’s funny you should mention the arts and crafts thing. I was going to take some of the cooler-looking ones, and glue them to my bedroom or closet door. And make a CD mobile. Yeah, I’m a dork…