I bought it. It has copyrighted and trademarked material in it. Can I sell it?

You've heard that making a profit off of copyrighted works is considered infringement. You've heard that making a profit off of someone's trademark is considered infringement. Piece of cake, right?

But what if you've legally bought a pile of DVDs of famous movies. Does that mean that you can't sell them or make a profit off of them if you do? Absolutely not. Under the "first sale doctrine" (which exists in both copyright and trademark law) as long as you purchased them legally, you can resell them anywhere, to anyone and for any amount you like.

So why doesn't that work for online movies? Well, first of all, most of the places that you can download movies on the internet from are not legal copies of the movie to begin with. So, selling or profiting in any way from those illegal copies is infringement (see last week's post for more detail).

The law is pretty clear cut for most items. If you've bought it legally, you can sell it under the first sale doctrine without legal reprecussions and liability for infringement.

The notable exception is computer software. It has been argued across the country in multiple cases that the End User License Agreement that you agree to when you buy software is not actually a sale of the software, but rather a license agreement to allow you to use the software for your personal use, but you don't actually "own" the software. So what can you do?

There's no easy answer. The courts across the country have been split on the issue. So, if you're trying to resell software that you bought online or from a store, you should really research the law in your district before doing so to make sure that your sale falls within the exception known as the first sale doctrine.