[Novalug] [DC LoCo] Legal victory for Open Source licensing

Bud Roth junk@taiotoshi.org
Thu Oct 30 10:00:56 EDT 2008


Kevin:

great article.  This is huge news for open source and free software
advocates.  A federal appeals court (the last stop before the U.S.
Supreme Court) reversed a lower court decision that a commercial vendor
who incorporated open source software for model trains into a commercial
product violated U.S. copyright law by not honoring the OS software's
"Artistic License".  

The Artistic License required the commercial vendor to identify the OS
software and its author and explain how the OS software was modified.
The vendor did not do that.  the article goes on to explain that it is
easier to seek statutory remedies under U.S. copyright law against an
"infringer" than prove breach of contract (the alternative action).
While the reversal is specific to this case, it provides case precedent
for similar claims by OS authors.  It supports a claim by an author who
releases software under GPLv2 or other licenses out there to bring a
claim of copyright infringement against someone who fails to honor the
licenses terms.

If the case had gone the other way, it would have really chilled the
waters for the OS movement.  Companies like Sun would likely have
steered clear of Open Source licenses because they would deem the
licenses unenforceable.  

Regards,

Bud Roth

On Fri, 2008-08-15 at 11:46 +0000, Kevin Cole wrote:
> Just saw this article in my RSS news feed and thought it might be of interest:
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7561943.stm
> 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <https://lists.firemountain.net/pipermail/novalug/attachments/20081030/8ac82787/attachment.asc>


More information about the Novalug mailing list