The US District Court in Seattle on Wednesday ruled in favor of eBay seller Timothy S. Vernor, denying Autodesk's request for "summary judgment" against Vernor. In doing so the court ruled that Vernor had the right to appeal for relief from Autodesk actions based on the "first sale" doctrine of copyright law. In finding for Vernor, Judge Richard Jones' ruling dismissed most of Autodesk's wide-ranging legal arguments as without standing.

If allowed to stand, the ruling effectively pulls the heart out of the license agreements that accompany most retail software products on the market today. You can be sure that not only Autodesk, but most software companies, will take action of some sort in response. It is unimaginable that Autodesk will not appeal this decision.

Not surprisingly, he turned to eBay, where a Scientologist buyer can remain blissfully unaware that his seller is a declared suppressive person. But every time he attempts to sell his e-meter on eBay, the listing is removed within hours by the Church of Scientology, which claims that the listing violates their intellectual property rights...

If you're uninitiated to eBay, you'd probably think that for each of these removals, the Church of Scientology informs eBay of the violation of its rights, eBay considers the merits of their argument, and then only then does eBay yank the listing. But that's not what happens at all. Instead, eBay effectively deputizes Scientology, which logs into eBay and removes the listings itself.