The Gift that Keeps on Giving – Distribution and Copyleft in Open Source Software License

Authors

  • Heather Meeker Greenberg Traurig

Keywords:

Law, information technology, Free and Open Source Software, GNU General Public License, distribution, US Law

Abstract

Copyleft obligations in licenses like GPL version 2 are triggered by "distribution," but what exactly does that means?  This article examines the question of what constitutes distribution under U.S. copyright law, and how that question plays out in complex business settings where free software thrives today.

Author Biography

  • Heather Meeker, Greenberg Traurig
    Heather Meeker is the chair of the IP/IT licensing and transactions group at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, and specializes in drafting and negotiating intellectual property transactions for software and other technology clients.  She was an Adviser to the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts project of the American Law Institute, and in 2011 was selected by the Daily Journal as one of the top 25 intellectual property licensing lawyers in California.   Her book The Open Source Alternative: Understanding Risks and Leveraging Opportunities was published by Wiley & Sons in February, 2008.

Downloads

Published

2012-05-09

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2012)

Section

Articles

License

The most restrictive licence we will accept for submission is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) SPDX identifier CC-BY-4.0

How to Cite

The Gift that Keeps on Giving – Distribution and Copyleft in Open Source Software License. (2012). Journal of Open Law, Technology & Society, 4(1), 29-40. https://www.jolts.world/index.php/jolts/article/view/66