Court Reinforces Control Concept in Copyright
It seems obvious, but it never hurts to have a court say it’s true. Money is not the only thing that makes the world go ’round, and free does not mean anything goes.
Briefly, an open-source software provider sued a company that used a portion of their code in another program without attributing it to the orginator, as required by the open source license. Although the use itself was allowed, they failed to follow the condition of attributing the source. The district court said, in essence, that because the code was distributed for free, there could be no infringement, no damages and therefore no enforcement of the license terms.
The good news is that the software provider appealed and the appeals court said free does not mean abdication of copyright control. So, even though the program was free, the provider has the right to put conditions on the use and to sue for infringement if those conditions are violated.
While this is obviously a great decision for the open source software movement, it’s also a boost for musicians who distribute free music through Creative Commons licenses or their own versions. Many of the Creative Commons licenses allow free uses of the music but with strict guidelines on attribution and modifications. Now we know courts are likely to find infringement when conditions of an otherwise allowable use are not followed.
Good news indeed for the free love movement.
You can read the decision here, if you like to read such things.
Leave a Reply