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Re: Open source licenses are /actually/ contracts?!?


From: John Hasler
Subject: Re: Open source licenses are /actually/ contracts?!?
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:06:55 -0500
User-agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.99 (gnu/linux)

Tim Tyler writes:
> What proportion of OSS developers register their work with the United
> States Copyright Office, I wonder.

If the infringement is ongoing you just have to register before filing
suit.

> Also, how often does $150,000 actually get awarded in free software
> cases?

It doesn't matter if the software is free.  The damages are _statutory_.
You prove infringement you get the damages.

> The article at the top seems to say that getting very much in the way of
> damages is unlikely - since the cost of the software is low:

The GPL provides that the license terminates immediately upon breach.
Therefor if the violation is ungoing proving breach of the GPL will give
you grounds for a copyright infringement complaint.  Statutory damages do
not depend on cost. Also note that many Free Software authors are more
interested in getting the infringement stopped than in collecting large
damages.
-- 
John Hasler 
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA


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