Free Software and Free Culture

Scope

 * Use this page to list sources related to questions about legal issues affecting free software and other efforts to freely license copyrighted works.

News / Editorial

 * Ryan Kim, Google Throws the Kitchen Sink at Oracle in Android Java Suit, NYTimes (Nov. 12, 2010).
 * Jacqui Cheng, The VLC-iOS license dispute and how it could spread to Android, Ars Technica (Nov. 1, 2010).
 * Cari Tuna and Don Clark, Oracle's Java Suit Gives Jolt, The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 14, 2010) (Oracle claims copyright infringement of Java code that Google distributes in Android smartphone OS).
 * Spencer Dalziel, Free software lawyers win GPL lawsuit The Inquirer (Aug. 5, 2010)
 * Ryan Paul, Red Hat Cloud Access makes RHEL contract transferable to EC2, Ars Technica (Apr. 27, 2010).
 * Nate Anderson, The White House: open-source Drupal developer?, Ars Technica (Apr. 22, 2010).
 * Peter Bright, Microsoft throws its weight behind Web Open Font format, Ars Technica (Apr. 20, 2010).
 * Ryan Paul, Microsoft offers much-needed fix for Windows OSS development, Ars Technica (Apr. 8, 2010).
 * Ryan Paul, IBM breaks OSS patent promise, targets mainframe emulator, Ars Technica (Apr. 6, 2010).
 * Jacobsen v Katzer Settled — Victory For F/OSS, Slashdot (Feb. 19, 2010).
 * Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, And Eleven Other Brands Named In SFLC Lawsuit SoftWareFreedom (Dec, 14, 2009)
 * Copyright Lawsuit: 16 Companies sued by the Software Freedom Law Center www.worldlawdirect.com (Dec. 12, 2009)
 * John Timmer, US government looks to expand scientific open access policy, Ars Technica (Dec. 14, 2009).
 * Mikael Ricknäs, Lawsuit Alleges Palm Pre Violates Copyright, PC World (Dec 4, 2009).
 * Nichelle N. Levy, Open source software license enforcement actions on the rise, Local Tech Wire (Dec. 4, 2009).
 * Emil Protalinski, Windows 7 tool violates GPL; Microsoft will open source it, Ars Technica (Nov. 16, 2009).
 * SFLC Finds One New GPL Violation Per Day, Slashdot (Nov. 10, 2009).
 * Rafael Rivera Jr., Microsoft lifts GPL code, uses in Microsoft Store tool, Rafael's Within Windows. (Nov. 6, 2009).
 * HTC Dragging Feet On GPL Source Release for "Hero" Phone, Slashdot (Oct. 16, 2009).
 * Patrick Wintour, 70% oppose internet ban for filesharers, poll shows, Guardian U.K. (Oct. 16, 2009).
 * Andre Paine, U.K. Committee Opposes Cutting Off File-Sharers, Billboard Biz (Oct. 16, 2009).
 * Austin Modine, GPLv2 - Copyright Code or Contract? Open Source Legal Minds Unravel License, The Register (Oct. 15, 2009).
 * Matt Asay, How the U.S. funds open source abroad, CNET News (Oct. 13, 2009).
 * Andrew Colley, Iinet Case To Determine Future Of Downloads, Australian IT (Oct. 7, 2009).
 * Greg Sandoval, UPDATE: Hollywood Hunts The Pirate Bay; Site Down Again, CNET News (Oct. 5, 2009).
 * Greg Sandoval, Google: Pirate Bay Booted Off Search By Mistake, CNET News (Oct. 2, 2009).
 * Michelle Megna, Google Shuts Down Android Dev Site, Internetnews.com (Sep. 28, 2009).
 * FSF France, Paris Court of Appeals condemns Edu4 for violating the GNU General Public License FSF France (Sep. 22, 2009).
 * Patrick Foster, Music industry ready for climbdown on internet piracy demands, TimesOnline (Sep. 16, 2009).
 * Associated Press, French Bill Would Cut Off Internet For People Who Download Illegally, SiliconValley.com (Sep. 15, 2009).
 * COPE, Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity Announcement, COPE (Sep. 14, 2009).
 * Katie Allen, Filesharing crackdown divides UK music industry, The Observer (Sep. 13, 2009).
 * Ryan Paul, New Microsoft-backed open source foundation faces questions, Ars Technica (Sep. 11, 2009).
 * John Edwards, Does GPL still matter?, Computerworld (Sep. 7, 2009).
 * David Meyer, Opposition Mounts Against P2P Disconnection Plan, CNET News (Sep. 5, 2009).
 * J. Nicholas Hoover, Federal Health IT Coding Event Draws Developers, Information Week (Aug. 27, 2009).
 * Eric Bangeman, SCO still up creek, searching for paddle despite appeal win, Ars Technica (Aug. 25, 2009).
 * Pamela Jones, SCO v. Novell appellate decision: $ from Sun deal affirmed as Novell's; rest remanded for jury trial, Groklaw (Aug. 24, 2009).
 * Ryan Paul, Pirate Party's copyright reform cannon could sink copyleft, Ars Technica (Jul. 27, 2009).
 * Ryan Paul, New advocacy group pushes OSS for the USA, Ars Technica (Jul. 23, 2009).
 * Editorial Committee, Launch of International Free and Open Source Software Law Review, Int'l Free and Open Source Software L. Rev. (Jul. 13, 2009).
 * John Timmer, MIT to make all faculty publications open access, Ars Technica (Mar. 24, 2009).
 * John Timmer, Congress may slam door on NIH research open access policy, Ars Technica (Feb. 6, 2009).

Legal Briefs / Opinions / Statutes

 * Jacobson v. Katzer, No. 2008-1001 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 13, 2008) (whether the conditions in the open source Artistic License limit the scope of the license, in which case a failure to comply with those conditions constitutes copyright infringement, or whether those conditions are in fact merely covenants, the breach of which gives rise only to a cause of action for damages).
 * S.A. Edu4 v. Associations AFPA, 04/24298 (Cour D'Appel de Paris Sep. 16, 2009) (en français).
 * United Transp. Union Local 1745 v. City of Albuquerque, No. 08-02103 (10th Cir. Aug. 21, 2009) (Court reporter does not hold copyright in transcripts she prepared, thus Plaintiff's counsel cannot be required to pay for copies independently obtained from the City under New Mexico's Inspection of Public Records Act).
 * The SCO Group, Inc. v. Novell, Inc., No. 08-4217 (10th Cir. 2009).
 * Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc. v. Best Buy Co., Inc. et al, 09-cv-10155 (SAS) (July 27 2010) UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Scholarship

 * Hannah B. Murray and Jason C. Miller, Wikipedia in Court: When and How Citing Wikipedia and Other Consensus Websites is Appropriate, SSRN Working Paper (Nov. 10, 2009).
 * Creative Commons, Defining "Noncommercial": A Study of How the Online Population Understands "Noncommercial Use", Creative Commons (Sep. 14, 2009).
 * Eric Goldman, Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze and its Consequences, 6 J. of Telecomm. and High Tech. L. (Aug. 2009).
 * Amber L. Wagner, Wikipedia Made Law? The Federal Judicial Citation of Wikipedia, 26 John Marshall J. of Comp. & Info. Law 229 (2008).
 * Amanda Albrecht Earl, Copyright Infringement and Open Source Public Licenses: Jacobsen v. Katzer, 535 F.3d 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2008)], Cincinnati L. Rev. (2009).
 * Steven A. Hetcher, Hume's Penguin, or, Yochai Benkler and the Nature of Peer Production 11 Vanderbilt J. of Ent'mt and Tech. L. 963 (2009).
 * Robert A. Hillman and Maureen A. O'Rourke, Rethinking Consideration in the Electronic Age, Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-004 (Mar. 3, 2009).
 * Yochai Benkler and Helen Nissenbaum, Commons-based Peer Production and Virtue, 14 J. of Pol. Phil. 394 (2006) (socio-technical systems of commons-based peer production offer not only a remarkable medium of production for various kinds of information goods but also serve as a context for positive character formation).
 * Paul Duguid, Limits of self–organization: Peer production and "laws of quality", First Monday, vol. 11, no. 10 (Oct. 2006) (looks at examples from peer production projects to ask whether faith in "laws of quality" does not so much guarantee quality as hide the need for improvement).
 * Lothar Determann, Dangerous Liaisons -- Software Combinations as Derivative Works? Distribution, Installation, and Execution of Linked Programs Under Copyright Law, Commercial Licenses, and the GPL, 21 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1421 (2006).
 * Amy Kapczynski, Samantha Chaifetz, Zachary Katz & Yochai Benkler, Addressing Global Health Inequities: An Open Licensing Approach for University Innovations, 20 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1031 (2005).
 * Rishab Aiyer Ghosh et al., Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study (Jun. 2002).
 * Rishab Aiyer Ghosh and Vipul Ved Prakash, The Orbiten Free Software Survey. First Monday, vol. 5, no. 7 (July 2000).