The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has held that somebody who publishes open-source software can enforce any limits he or she chooses to set on its use. The case is called Jacobsen v. Katzer.
Read the decision for yourself. I think this it’s good news. When a person dedicates intellectual property to the creative commons, he or she ought to be place reasonable limits on its use. Read some informed analysis at this link.
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Here’s a link to comments by an Australian lawyer on the case:
http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/jacobsen-v-katzer-a-view-of-the-antipodes/
Very nice job on this. Clear and right on the point. I would only add that there are limits to what copyright holders should specify in their licenses. For example, a company that created a database of labor relations materials specified in their license that members of labor unions could not access the database.
In accordance with democratic ideals, valid contractual limits on the use of copyrighted material should be limited to those rights which the copyright holder possesses, namely, the right to copy, distribute, modify, or perform the work. Open sources licenses fall well within this limitation. They say, in essence, that you may only copy or modify this work if you extend the same privileges to the recipients of your copies or modifications.
B. Pfaffenberger, Univ. of Virginia
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