[cc-community] Washington Federal Court confirms that free licences are enforceable
jonathon
jonathon.blake at gmail.com
Mon Aug 18 17:42:50 EDT 2008
On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 12:50, Patrick Anderson wrote:
> Are you saying copyright and patent laws are not applicable where it can be shown there is no economic value?
As a general rule of thumb, both copyright, and patent law cases
require economic damage. If there is no economic value, then there is
no economic damage, and as such, there is no legal basis for the
lawsuit.
The patent troll claimed that because the source code that they used
was distributed gratis, there was no economic value to that source
code, and as such, they (the patent troll) were justified in both
obtaining a patent on that code, and charging the plaintiff royalty
payments.
(OK. This is a gross oversimplification, and misses a number of the
nuances of the case. )
The patent troll claimed that there was no economic value to the
material they used, and as such, no bases for the lawsuit that was
brought against them.
> What is the your definition of "economic value" in this case?
As the court noted, the usual legal definition of "economic value"
applies. That such economic value is not a specific monetary amount is
irrelevant. (Had the court ruled any other way, it would have thrown
a dizzying array of case law into confusion.)
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.
xan
jonathon
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