Lessig

Open Source licenses gain teeth

by alec on August 14, 2008

Lawrence Lessig reports that free software licenses have been upheld. According to Lessig, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has said that

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.

The case in question has now been sent back to the District Court to determine whether there is grounds for an injunction to be granted to the plaintiff.

Although many businesses have treated Open Source code with respect for some time, this ruling adds teeth to Open Source licenses. Violate the rights granted to you in an Open Source license, and you may land in court! This should provide a tremendous boost to businesses like Protecode, who make tools for help track and manage the pedigree of code used by developers in their applications.

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Kodak vs. the Internet

by alec on October 3, 2005

Bob Frankston’s piece Kodak vs. the Internet is worth a read. The world predicted by Larry Lessig in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace is coming to be. N.B. If you haven’t read this book, you should. Written for the legal layman, it’s a populist look at the impact of technology on law.

So, although you presumably own your photographs, Kodak’s code controls them. As forecast by Lessig, the law, in this case copyright, is taking a subordinate role to code.

It’s not as bad as Bob makes out, though. You still have the option of storing the photos locally on your PC, which presumably you would. EasyShare wouldn’t likely be your only storage solution, since the camera can store up to 1500 pictures before needing to download. In fact, Kodak foresees the use of this camera as a photosharing device as well, and provides synchronization software to allow you to store your favorites on the camera – an iPod for photos.

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