The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the copyright limitations in the open source Artistic License were comprised of conditions, and not covenants. The court further held the breach of these conditions constituted copyright infringement. The ruling strengthens the enforceability of free and open source “public” licenses, which allow copyright holders to make material available for public use, generally on very permissive terms, subject to certain conditions. The court below held that violations of the license terms at issue gave rise only to contract remedies. The Federal Circuit reversed, adopting the view that license terms requiring retention of copyright notices and licensing information, when appropriately drafted as conditions to the license, serve to limit the scope of the license such that copyright remedies, instead of contract remedies, are available for conduct exceeding that scope.
Jacobsen v. Katzer et. al, No. 2008-1001 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 13, 2008)
Published in Tuesday, October 10, 2008, Volume 6, No. 1
