Used Profiler with Commercial Profiles - legal issues & licensing question

    Hi Everyone,


    I am wondering about how the licensing or ownership works for commercial profiles that have been purchased by a user, and then included with the profiler when it is sold second hand. Is this "legal" ?


    Does the new owner of the profiler legitimately own these commercial profiles?


    Does it make a difference if the seller does not replace their profiler (ie, switched to tube amps or Axe, for example), as opposed to someone who, for example sells a toaster to buy a rack model (or sells unpowered to buy powered), and will continue to use the profiles on a new machine?


    The prospect of buying a second hand profiler that is loaded up with lots of commercial profiles is certainly attractive, but I respect the work these people do, and feel that they should be properly compensated. It is also in the best interests of the Kemper community that these talented people are able to make a fair profit and hopefully choose to continue to provide us all with their great products.


    I am certainly not endorsing any kind of "piracy" just hoping to understand how things work, and wondering if there is ever a case where a used profiler (with commercial profiles) can be purchased in a fair and ethical way.


    Thanks,


    Paul


    By the way - this is one of the best forums I have ever seen, the community shows exceptional helpfullness and respect to one another - an exceptional group of individuals

    Hi and welcome - and thanks for the nice words :)


    Good questions.


    Personally, my ethics say that if you sell the unit and DO NOT keep the profiles for your power rack, then that's OK.
    That MAY go against what you have agreed to when purchasing the profiles (terms of service kind of deal) - I really don't know.
    Legislation may render such terms void - I think they might do so in EU, but I'm not sure.


    If you sell the kemper with the purchased profiles AND KEEP the profiles, then I would say that ethically and most probably also legally, that's piracy.


    The difficulty is of course also: as a buyer, how do you know that the seller isn't keeping the profiles for a future profiler. No way to know, really. I guess "good faith" comes into play, here.

    It would seem that if you can sell your Kemper itself, you should be able to sell the purchased profiles within it as long as you stop using them for yourself. I can't see the difference. Although I have no idea about the profile licensing terms - I'm sure they are overly restrictive in this area as most software licenses are. Digital media / software restriction are neither consistent or logical vs their hardware counterparts, so who knows.