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Comment by pizzapill | Hacker News Reader

The Nvidia driver licenses that prohibit US companies from using the HW are probably void in Germany/EU. Happens a lot.

Yes. Companies are not allowed to restrict the (legal) usage of something i bought. The only thing they can do is refusing support if i used their product in any means not covered by the license terms, but even this is really hard for them in reality.

It‘s the same with no-resell license terms. Within the EU companies cant forbid me reselling something i bought.

The restriction is on the drivers.

We're going full circle here. The EULAs, licenses etc. of US companies that try to restrict how you can use the Hardware/Software you bought are void in Germany (probably most of EU too) and can be ignored. In many cases they void other (legal) parts of those licenses too since the license is partly illegal.

I don't think that's universally true concerning software. I tried to do some research on the jurisdiction in the EU but got to no definitive conclusion.

However in case of reselling software the corresponding restriction is obviously seen as illegal (or non-binding) in the EU. On the other hand there are restrictions such as copying, running software X on Y computers etc that are valid and binding.

My blanked statement indeed does not cover some fundamental aspects. IP/Copyright laws are in place and will restrict consumer rights. So pirating software is still illegal.

BUT AFAIK you can make legal copies for Backup purposes of your legally acquired software.

Also AFAIK a restriction to run Software on a certain type of Hardware is not valid in Germany. For example I'm pretty sure that Apple can't do anything against Hackintoshs here.

I.e. russian law voids any prohibition on reverse engineering of software.

Interesting question is whether the company can sue you for this in the US jurisdiction.

Since the Eula comes with the driver, hetzner (and other hardware rentals) shouldn't be covered directly. They don't download and install the driver for you, so aren't a party of that contract in any case.

Could you reference a law which prohibits doing this?

Sounds like the US needs better antitrust/consumer laws.

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