Big court win for open source licences
In a significant victory of free and open source licences the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit - which deals with IP issues - has upheld an open source licence (PDF), in particular referencing the Artistic Licence from Creative Commons.
Creative Commons founder, Larry Lessig, has welcomed ruling, calling it a huge and important
victory. Lessig also points out the significance of the ruling: “In
non-technical terms, the Court has held that free licenses such as the
CC licenses set conditions (rather than covenants) on the use of
copyrighted work. When you violate the condition, the license
disappears, meaning you’re simply a copyright infringer.
This is the theory of the GPL and all CC licenses. Put precisely, whether or not they are also contracts, they are copyright licenses which expire if you fail to abide by the terms of the license.”
Mark Radcliffe on his blog, Law & Life: Silicon Valley, calls the ruling a “major victory” and Groklaw’s Pamela Jones adds her insight.
