Legal Ruling Vindicates Open Source Software Movement
Saturday, August 16th, 2008In a landmark victory for the free or “open source” software movement, a U.S. federal appeals court in Washington State has ruled that just because a software programmer gave his software away didn’t mean its use couldn’t be restricted.
Essentially, the court held that software could be distributed under licenses that allowed users to freely use the software… subject to certain conditions such as requirements to give credit to the developer and follow the developer’s instructions.
This ruling is not only meaningful for open source software developers but also confirms the rights of Internet marketers who provide ebooks, articles, royalty free images and music, and other content under conditional free licenses.
