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[LUG] [Fwd: [Jmri-legal-announce] Appeals Court Ruling in JMRI copyright case]

 

Hi

More Model Railway stuff attached for those that are interested.

All the best

Peter L-J

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<http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/updates.html#last>

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued its decision 
in our copyright appeal, and it's a ringing victory for JMRI and 
open-source in general.
<http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/docket/cafc-pi-1/08-1001.pdf>

In summary, the Court decided:
* The Artistic License does put valid conditions on the use of 
licensed software.
* Those conditions limit the copyright license, and actions outside 
them are infringement.
* An injunction to stop that infringement is a suitable remedy.

Specifically, the Court wrote:

>It is outside the scope of the Artistic License to modify and 
>distribute the copyrighted materials without copyright notices and a 
>tracking of modifications from the original computer files. If a 
>downloader does not assent to these conditions stated in the COPYING 
>file, he is instructed to "make other arrangements with the 
>Copyright Holder." Katzer/Kamind did not make any such "other 
>arrangements." The clear language of the Artistic License creates 
>conditions to protect the economic rights at issue in the granting 
>of a public license. These conditions govern the rights to modify 
>and distribute the computer programs and files included in the 
>downloadable software package. The attribution and modification 
>transparency requirements directly serve to drive traffic to the 
>open source incubation page and to inform downstream users of the 
>project, which is a significant economic goal of the copyright 
>holder that the law will enforce. Through this controlled spread of 
>information, the copyright holder gains creative collaborators to 
>the open source project; by requiring that changes made by 
>downstream users be visible to the copyright holder and others, the 
>copyright holder learns about the uses for his software and gains 
>others' knowledge that can be used to advance future software 
>releases.

The Appeals Court ruled that the lower court's decision is "vacated 
and remanded". This returns the case to the District Court for 
Northern California, which must decide on a remaining question before 
issuing the injunction.
Although there will be some further proceedings, this is a huge step 
forward for us. The appellate judges have ruled that when Kater took 
JMRI files, modified them, and distributed them as if there were his 
own, he was violating copyright law and we can hold him accountable.

It's also an important result for open-source software in general, 
because (to quote Larry Lessig's blog):
<http://lessig.org/blog/2008/08/huge_and_important_news_free_l.html>

>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.
>
>Important clarity and certainty by a critically important US Court.

For links to commentary and news coverage, see our "Articles by Others" page:
<http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/news.html#CAFCruling1>

The fight is not over, but this was a good day.

Bob
-- 
Bob Jacobsen +1-510-486-7355 fax +1-510-643-8497 AIM, Skype JacobsenRG

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