European B/W Software Market

The head of the IT department of the Berlin VlksBank, Jörg Bauske, said that he had found a rather easy way to reduce software costs - buying old licenses, Bloomberg said.

Principle of operation

According to Bauske, everything is simple - the broker buys the necessary software several generations below the existing one and then updates to the necessary configuration or does not update.

Secondary Software Market

Analysts believe that software developers have something to worry about. Every year, European companies spend $250-275 billion on software and business applications. The potential secondary software market is estimated at more than $1 trillion.

However, now this market is still too small. So, for example, the German segment of secondary software, which is the largest, in 2011 amounted to 100 million euros ($ 131 million).

According to market participants, the secondary sale of software will blow up the segment of business applications in the near future.

Legal risks

Bauske claims that previously such transactions were of a dubious nature, but in July 2012 the European Court of Justice adopted a decision giving the green light to the elders of the software.

The exclusive right to distribute copies of computer programs under licenses applies only to the first sale, the court ruled. This applies to software downloaded from the network, as well as purchased on CD or DVD.

The court also ruled that all patches and updates made to the software under the service agreement are also part of this software and can be sold with it. However, the court stipulated that the seller must deactivate a copy of the program on his computer when he transfers the license for it to the buyer.

Interestingly, the European Court of Justice found it impossible to "crush" licenses when reselling if they were purchased for more users than they really are.

Cost of "new" product

As a rule, the cost of software in the secondary market is 30-70% of the nominal value of the product at the vendor. The buyer can purchase a key from the broker and then download the official update on the manufacturer's website.