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From: bond!aaron@nyu.edu (Aaron Sosnick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.wanted,soc.college
Subject: Re: Will pay $200 for Student to Buy Mac
Message-ID: <1991Feb5.034345.9115@bond>
Date: 5 Feb 91 03:43:45 GMT
References: <5606@auspex.auspex.com> <3866@uakari.primate.wisc.edu> <1991Jan31.031816.5109@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> <340@oiscola.Columbia.NCR.COM> <1991Feb3.230629.15541@agate.berkeley.edu>
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Reply-To: bond!aaron@nyu.edu (Aaron Sosnick)
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It is not clear that reselling a Mac bought with a student discount is
illegal. It is certainly not a criminal offense. You cannot go to jail for it.

Usually when you buy property it is yours. You may do what you want with it,
including sell it. Any obligation not to resell a Mac would constitute a contract
between you and Apple. There are many reasons a contract may not be valid.
Some of them may apply here. In particular, unreasonable restrictions on the use
of property are often unenforceable. Selling a Mac when you no longer have
a use for it is arguably reasonable.

In any event, a general principle of contract law holds that contract
violation only makes you liable for damage done to the other party and 
that that party holds the burden of proof in any court case. Apple will
have a hard time showing that they have been damaged if you would not have
bought a Mac at a higher price. Furthermore it is very unlikely that they
would go to court to regain a few hundred dollars.

In my opinion Apple's monopolistic and anti-competitive efforts to segment
markets and restrict product use constitute the real ethical wrongdoing.

To be safe I would advise one to simply offer to pay someone $200 more than
Apple's discount prices for a little-used Mac. This will make it clear that
you are not advocating that anyone enter into a contract with Apple with intent
to defraud.

I am not a lawyer, but I play one on the net.