Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
Rethinking Consideration In The Electronic Age, Maureen A. O'Rourke
Rethinking Consideration In The Electronic Age, Maureen A. O'Rourke
Faculty Scholarship
Our fast-paced age of electronic agreements that ostensibly govern transactions as diverse as downloading software, ordering goods, and engaging in collaborative development projects raises questions regarding thesuitability of contract law as the appropriate legal framework. While this question arises in many settings, we focus here on the free and open source software (FOSS) movement because of the maturity and success of its model and the ubiquity of its software. We explore in particular whether open source licenses are supported by consideration, and argue that they are, and that open source licenses are contracts. We further argue that a contractual framework …
Open Code Governance, Danielle K. Citron
Open Code Governance, Danielle K. Citron
Faculty Scholarship
Automated information systems offer an opportunity to improve the democratic legitimacy of the administrative state. Today, agencies transfer crucial responsibilities to computer systems. Computers gather and interpret important information. For instance, electronic machines record and calculate votes. Automated systems execute policy and render decisions about important individual rights, such as a person's eligibility for public benefits. Computer systems store sensitive personal information. These systems' closed architecture, however, shields vital agency decisions from view. No one can see how a system operates without a software program's source code. Closed code hides programming errors that disenfranchise voters, under-count communities for the census, …