Is Selling Part of a Boxed Set Legal?

[sclough]

I'm wondering if it's legal to sell part of a boxed set. I was looking at upgrading iWork to '09 and say several postings like this on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/APPLE-IWORK-09-...ZViewItemQQptZUS_Software?hash=item23033d5211 .

I know things can be faked on eBay, but they have 100% positive feedback and quite a bit of feedback. I would assume if this is illegal that eBay would have shut them down. Since I avoid software piracy, I emailed the seller and they said the software is guaranteed brand new, uninstalled and fully legal. Still, anybody know for sure? I don't need the box or the manual so if this is legal it would help to save a little these days...

 

[Anonymous Freak]

My initial reaction was that Apple had to have some licensing in the Box Set that specifies that you are getting a license to install all three pieces of software on one single computer (or five computers, in the case of the family pack.) Thus, dividing up the Box Set would be a violation of the license agreement.

But... In searching Apple's license agreement page, and the Mac Box Set store page, there is no mention of a specific Mac Box Set license. It appears that you really are just buying the three sets of software packaged together.

Therefore, I have to say that, based on what I can find, there is no legal problem whatsoever with splitting up a Box Set and selling one part separately.

 

[sclough]

My initial reaction was that Apple had to have some licensing in the Box Set that specifies that you are getting a license to install all three pieces of software on one single computer (or five computers, in the case of the family pack.) Thus, dividing up the Box Set would be a violation of the license agreement.

But... In searching Apple's license agreement page, and the Mac Box Set store page, there is no mention of a specific Mac Box Set license. It appears that you really are just buying the three sets of software packaged together.

Therefore, I have to say that, based on what I can find, there is no legal problem whatsoever with splitting up a Box Set and selling one part separately.

I guess that explains why there are so many of them on eBay. Not that eBay is always clean, but it seems like shady stuff is usually on accounts with very little feedback...