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Conditions And Covenants In License Contracts: Tales From A Test Of The Artistic License, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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The Federal Circuit upheld the Artistic License in Jacobsen v. Katzer, establishing at long last that open source licenses are enforceable. Although that outcome received most of the headlines, the case's greater significance lies elsewhere. Jacobsen v. Katzer teaches valuable lessons about conditions and covenants in license contracts, lessons that apply to licenses of all persuasions. Moreover, the case raises an important issue about the interplay between contract and intellectual property law: can licensors manipulate the distinction between covenants and conditions in such a way that upsets the delicate balance in copyright law? The article explores the lessons taught by …

General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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The General Public License (GPL) enshrines a softwarehacker's' freedom to use code in important ways. Hackers oftenrefer to the GPL as the free software movement's "constitution."Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), wrote the most recent version of the GPL, version 2.0, back in 1991. For a constitution, a fourteen-year-old document is young, but for a license, it is quite old. The revision process is finally underway, led by Stallman and Eben Moglen, FSF's general counsel.

The release of GPL version 3.0 will be momentous for many reasons, but one reason stands out: The GPL governs much of …