Even careful drafting of a software license can be stripped of its protections by a court. In some cases, United States courts have declared that standard software licenses must be interpreted as a sale of goods, granting the software users rights never intended by the software company. This commentary, written by software contracting attorney Ted Claypoole, examines a recent movement to apply the first sale doctrine to software licenses.
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Claypoole, Ted
Ted Claypoole is a Member of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice in its Technology Transaction Team, concentrating his practice on internet and data management legal issues. Claypoole has served as corporate counsel for CompuServe, Inc. and as assistant general counsel at Bank of America, concentrating on the bank's technology, ecommerce, data security and intellectual property. A 1985 honors graduate of Duke University and 1988 graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law, he regularly writes and speaks on the intersection between the law and information technology, including co-presenting "The Ethics of Pervasive Biometrics" at the 2007 RSA conference, and moderating a panel on Data Integrity at the 2007 ABA Business Law Spring Meeting. Claypoole has served on a U.S. Justice Department Computer Crimes Task Force and the Information Protection Committee for the Banking Industry Technology Secretariat.
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