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Google Glass tester? Don't dare try to sell your new toy.

Google Glass test units are rolling 'off the production line,' Google has announced. But there are lots of rules attached.

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A close-up look at the Google Glass headset.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Lucky enough to land a pair of Google Glass spectacles? Well, don't even think about lending them out or pawning them off, unless you want a bricked piece of hardware on your hands. 

According to the Google Glass terms of service (hat tip to CNET), Glass users may not "resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google's authorization."

If they do, the terms continues, "Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither [the user] nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty."

In other words, if you decide to sell your Glass headset to your best friend for a couple thousand bucks, and Google catches wind of the transaction, the Mountain View giant can remotely wipe out the capabilities of the glasses, leaving your buddy with a futuristic-looking but useless chunk of plastic.

As the Los Angeles Times notes, the restriction on reselling/loans likely has two purposes: it helps keep Glass away from competitors, and it helps prevent testers from charging exorbitant prices for the gear. 

Wired has published a report on a Philadelphia man named Ed who put his Glass goggles up on eBay, and watched as the bids reached $90,000.

"After getting a message on Twitter from Google saying I had been selected as part of the program a couple weeks ago," said Ed, who asked that Wired only use his first name, "it just came to mind if they are giving out to a limited number of people, I could put it out there on eBay and sell it for a lot more than $1,500." He later removed the listing from eBay. 

On Wednesday, Google announced that the first Glass tester units were rolling "off the production line" and into the hands of testers. "We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, and it’s been both thrilling and surreal to watch it happen," Google reps wrote in a Google+ post. "We’re currently notifying our Explorers who signed up at Google I/O 2012, and they’ll be receiving Glass in waves in the coming weeks." 

Spot a Google Glass headset in the wild? Let us know. And in the meantime, for more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

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