AECnews.com reported about a new lawsuit filed by an individual seeking 10 million dollars in punitive damages from Autodesk for causing his eBay account to be cancelled. The lawsuit is a bit off topic for this site, but I think the plaintiff makes an interesting legal argument.

Autodesk uses provisions of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) to send takedown notices when someone lists legitimately purchased AutoCAD software for sale on an auction site like eBay. Autodesk's license agreement prohibits resale, however Mr. Vernor notes that Autodesk's takedown notices are sent under the auspices of copyright law, not contract law. He further contends that the license agreement is not enforceable in any case.

The main point of the argument here is the notion that the DMCA does not apply because no copyrights are being violated, and therefore Autodesk cannot force auction sites to remove listings of AutoCAD for sale. On its face, this argument has merit because it is not copyright law that prohibits the resale of AutoCAD -- it is the shrink wrap license agreement, which falls under contract law.

It will be interesting to see Autodesk's response. I have added a docket history for this lawsuit at the very bottom of the docket page (you must register to read the documents). Make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed for this page if you want to stay informed of new developments in the case.