The Court of Justice of the EU ruled against Oracle in their attempt to stop resale of their software by the German firm UsedSoft. The court said that a company loses its exclusive right to distribution of software upon the first sale, and cannot inhibit resale of the software, whether that is on physical discs or through downloads. This applies even if the license agreement has language that prohibits further transference of the software. The IP owner "cannot oppose the resale of the copy or to copies of the program that are later updated by the software author."
This ruling by Europe's highest court may have tremendous effects on software sales. We could see a considerable upsurge in sales of "pre-used" software licenses.
The court ruling was not entirely against Oracle's interests however. They ruled that licenses could not be split up and sold partially, and they ruled that once a license is sold, the original buyer must disable the software on their computer.
You can read about this ruling at Managing Copyright.
