Can a Used Chess Engine Program Be Used Again?

I bought Komodo Chess 10 and put it on my computer.  Not using it though.  Can it be  put on someone else's computer and used (if sold on ebay) ? 

if it runs without the disc, and has no sort of installation key/internet digital rights management, then the answer is you can do that, but it's technically illegal.

Depends on its license.

Modern software (as in the last 30 years) is not "sold" but licensed.

Yes, you can sell it!  Be sure to Deactivate the program before uninstalling it.  Then you can sell it intact.  There is a limit to the number installations permitted, deactivation is necessary to turn back the installation count.  Just be honest with the buyer and should be no problem.  You can contact Chessbase support after uninstalling to confirm the number of installations that remain.

As far as I can find, there is nothing that says you can't.  If someone finds something that says different post that section of the user agreement.  If you can even find one.

If you sell it while it is still installed on one of your computers that is illegal.

You are not selling software, as already mentioned, you are selling the license, it is a single user license, so you cannot use it if you are selling it.

There's no deactivating Komodo but of course you can delete it..  It's sold without copy protection but each executable is tied to the purchaser by an information string in the executable.  If you double-click the executable you'll see it.  You're not supposed to sell it - it's your copy.  See sample info string here ---->> 

I found this at the Komodo website.  You might need to be signed in to find it, I'm not sure.  But Kenardi is right, it's hard to find the actual license agreement.  

Here you go ---->>

Licensing and Verification

The copy you received is licensed to you personally. You are free to use it on all machines you personally own, but not on other machines. We also reserve the right to suspend accounts to customers who have abusively distributed illegal copies of the Komodo chess engine’s current and previous versions, without refund. We also reserve the right to be more generous to customers who have been supportive of our team and have notified us about websites and people distributing illegal copies. It is our joint efforts that make the world a better place!!!

If you purchased the Komodo Chess engine from the authors, the license agreement might be different then from Chessbase.  However, based on current law, despite what the owner of the software might say, you sill have the legal right to "resell" the license on software.  As far as I am aware, the companies or individuals have no legal means of stopping it.  They might suspend your account if you should grossly abuse the single-user license agreement, it is a contract.

This does not give you the legal right to resell the software, only the single-user license that you have.  Meaning you can't just start selling copies of the software, that is what is meant by "distributing illegal copies".

If you purchased directly from the author of the software and they have by some means tagged what is on your computer giving only you the right to use it, you cannot sell that installed copy.  You can delete it.  You can however, sell the original "unused" copy, if that should exist.   If it doesn't, then it would appear you are SOL!  :-)

Given that they have gone through the effort of tagging the installed software, I'm sure it has an embedded serial number as well. 

You can always contact who you purchased it from for confirmation on how to resell their single-user license.  Sounds like once you have installed it, you are the sole owner of that copy.  Technically, this does not look like a "License" you have been sold.  It would appear they have sold you the rights to a single copy that is permanently tagged with your identity once installed.  That you cannot sell, tricky -- you might be able to sub-lease it.  (I am joking) :-)

I'm not a lawyer, but this sounds a little strange to me... every sword has two edges.  Seems you are being sold a "personal" copy not a license... this sounds a little gray to me.

Personally, I would never buy "used" software.

hopefully, we get a court decision that blows this digital license stuff wide open.  I know bruce willis was taking a case as far as he could, wanting to gift his apple mp3 collection to his son or something, they claim he can't do it and he says otherwise.  

Transferring a license is not always possible and then quite often they charge for the change.

But either way some companies offer this and if you want to stay in the legal area then it's up to you to check this.

I strongly agree intellectual property needs to be protected.  However, if you are purchasing something, not leasing it, you have every legal right to sell the piece that you own.  Some companies make it easy some make it difficult, legally they cannot stop it.

Example: you purchase a book, you own that book, you can loan that book out, you can sell that book, you can give the book away to someone and they can sell it, you cannot make copies of the words inside that book an sell them.

When it comes to licensing with business-to-business this is something completely different.  This is typically written as a lease (often referred to as a support contract) for a specific location and number of users.  Once the license expires they can no longer use the software unless it is renewed.

This is one reason companies like the cloud so much... software on the cloud with annual "support" fees.

Yes, some companies offer license transfers with a "services fee."  This is like a filling fee or restocking fee.  BS!

When Komodo is purchased from the authors, you are buying engine executables.  There is no installation routine whereby Komodo is installed as a Windows program.  The only installation is when you configure a GUI to use the engine.  Komodo is therefore 100% portable, with no copy protection whatsoever.  But those engine binaries bear your name.

A problem here is that if you do sell your copy, there's nothing stopping the next guy from selling copies or sharing the files via BitTorrent or piracy sites.  If that happens, there will be dozens of illegal copies out there, all bearing your name.

I'm not qualified to speak to the actual legalities here but I'm pretty sure the authors consider the license non-transferable.  

This is a very interesting argument. 

One that definitely needs a lawyer.  Or maybe a court.

Since you own the software you have the legal right to sell it, but you must surrender all rights to using the software, meaning you can not use it anymore or have a copy of it.  You must sell or destroy all copies.

However, the author of the software has encoded your identity within the software and given only you permission to use and make copies onto any device that you own.

You do not have the legal right to alter the software and sell it without the permission of the author, meaning, you can not change the name encoded into the software.

Technically I don't think the author can block or stop the sale.  Problem is the software can't be legally copied or used by anyone else then the identity encoded into the software, so the buyer could not legally use the software.  So, why would they buy it?

Then again, I could be completely wrong.  :-)

If you purchased the chess engine - No.

If you purchased the chessbase product that includes the chess engine - Yes.

Sorry, couldn't resist.