License myth or
Applied Copyleft
Advokat Martin von Haller Groenbaek
Partner, Bender von Haller Dragsted
FOSS, Aalborg, 24 March 2009
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Questions
Copyleft 1.0.1 Escapes
What is a derived Enforcement
work?
Damages
Combinations
Licenses
Distribution
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Personalia
IT-Lawyer, partner at Bender von Haller Dragsted
Co-founder of Forening for Dansk Internet Handel
(FDIH), Open Source Leverandør Foreningen (OSL),
Danish Chapter of Internet Society (ISOC DK), DK-
Hostsmaster A/S and the like
Board member of several SME IT companies
Legal counsel to OSS developers and public
institutions (even works with Microsoft!)
I am not a hacker, computer scientist BUT
“in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king”
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Full Disclosure
I make good money from advising on open
source law
I want to promote my open source brand
I want you to pay money to me for legal
services
I love open source!
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The ideology
You get the four freedoms
You shall preserve these
freedoms
So when you (re)distribute,
copyleft secures that the next
persons gets the same freedoms
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FLOSS - some basics
Copyright based
Not public domain
Licenses vs. contracts
Free software vs. open source software
Dual licensing
Copyleft, “Viral” or Hereditary
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Copyleft - the basics
You don’t have to redistribute or distribute
(Exception: “written offer valid for any third
party” in GPL, v. 2)
Comply or cease use, or call back distribution
Make combined program, including
modifications and otherwise closed code
available under GPL (or compatible licens)
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Derivative work
A work based on one or more pre-existing
works
Improvement, translation, correction
Not collective work
Modifications are copyrighted themselves
Very few court cases
GPL: Combinations
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Combination
Combination of code Semantics of the
into a whole communication
NB: All combinations Output not covered
are permitted and
(Exc: GPL program
“private” combinations
copies text into output)
have no restrictions
Output of language
Mechanism of
communication interpreter
exec, pipes, rpc, (Exc: “bindings”
function calls within interpreter to
a shared address program)
space, etc.
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Combination cont.
CMS Templates fork and exec to
invoke plug-ins
Exc: Javascript calls
System library exception
Microsoft Visual C++ (or
Visual Basic) DLLs Aggregate work is not
combined work
Plug-ins under a GPL
program Linking exception
dynamically linked LGPL allows linking to
plug-ins closed applications
Java archive files
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Distribution
GPL v2: Distribution Contractors on/off-
site
GPL v3: Propagation
and Conveyance Outsourcing
In soft- and Mergers and
hardware Acquisitions
ASP loophole og Let recipient
network exception download the GPL’ed
code
Affero Public License
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Escapes
Make deal with NDA: Developer can
licensor agree not to
release changes at
Replace code all
Work around NDA: Developer can
agree only to
GPL v3, sec. 8 release changes to
customer
Termination
notice
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Enforcement
The GPL is enforceable!
Germany 2004: Netfilter/Iptables; 2006: D-Link
US 2007: BusyBox; 2008: Jacobsen vs. Katzer
SCO
Copyright holder
Licensee
GPL-VIOLATIONS.ORG
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Damages
Compensation under copyright
No penal damages or stipulated damages
Economic loss suffered by licensor
Rule of thumb: 2 x license fee
Injunction
Legal fees
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Licenses
“Version 2 of the GPL or any later version”
User: GPL v. 3 more permissive or
restrictive
Developer: Free to choose for future
versions of program
GPL compatibility
FLOSS Exception
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Thanks for the
attention!
mhg@bvhd.dk
martin@groenbaek.net
http://www.bvhd.dk
http://suse.groenbaek.net/openlife
tirsdag den 24. marts 2009