To see the history of this issue in copyright law, shepardize Jewelers Mercantile Agency v. Jewelers Pub. Under the first sale doctrine, publisher lost its property interest in an individual copy of a book once it sold that copy. For patent law, look at the doctrine of exhaustion, starting with Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Manufacturing Co. The problem is that mass market licenses create restrictions that apply market-wide, just as if they were decreed by an intellectual property law. By putting a no-transfer clause in the license, the vendor achieves the equivalent of the elimination of the first sale doctrine.
Reverse engineering is a normal engineering practice.
This allegation makes nice copy and superficial impact, but is simply untrue. Under the statute s own definition, a nondisclosure clause is a contractual use restriction. The customer shall not disclose the results of any benchmark test to any third party without McAfee's prior written approval. Clauses like these are enforceable in traditional, negotiated licenses, and they are used to block magazine reviews. By designing the program in a way that makes it possible to be remotely disabled, the vendor creates a hole in the customer s system security.