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Open Source: Court Ruling Unnerves the Faithful
With Open Source becoming ever more popular, it is interesting to note that Open Source licenses pretty much have an untested track record in the courtroom. But that’s almost certain to change in the near future. And the first sign of that was a recent court ruling in San Francisco that runs counter to the spirit of Open Source.
The court ruling involved a lawsuit filed by a University of California Physics professor, Roger Jacobsen, against Kamind Associates of Oregon.
Jacobsen and others had developed software to control model railroads that was licensed under the Artistic License, a form of Open Source
approved by the Open Source Initiative.
Jacobsen sued Kamind for violation of copyright and trademark for using the software in a commercial product that did not attribute the source of the software. Jacobsen asked the court to force Kamind Associates to stop selling product that was based on the Open Source code without complying with the Artistic license.
Surprisingly, the court ruled that the failure to include the name of the authors on the software amounted to a contract violation rather
than a copyright infringement. If the ruling isn’t overturned, it could limit enforcement of violations of open source licenses.
In thing seems certain: Open Source legal cases will need to be framed differently than those for standard software usage. In cases where Open Source software is being given away free, it is very difficult to assess any damages.
