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This article has me confused about the legal status of licenses in US copyright law. Are they not contracts? I mean, the GPL promises the recipient something (t
by yorwba 5y ago
This article has me confused about the legal status of licenses in US copyright law. Are they not contracts? I mean, the GPL promises the recipient something (the right to make copies of a software) in return for something else (the source code for any modifications). That smells like a contract to me.
- unnah 5y agoIt seems that unlike in civil law countries, in common law countries such as the UK and US, a license is a separate legal category from a contract. A license can be interpreted as a contract as well, but you can make a "bare license" that is simply a grant of permission and not a contract all. In civil law countries such as continental Europe, all copyright licenses are interpreted as contracts. My understanding is based on this LWN article summarizing the opinions of several legal experts on the subject: https://lwn.net/Articles/747563/ https://lwn.net/Articles/747563/
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- user5994461 5y agoHow about I make a second article to explain licenses vs contracts in US and the rest of the world? Your question went to US court in 2017. I wanted to cover that briefly but the blog is already quite long without getting into more specifics about licenses in the US.