by United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit — published in 2008

Read the document  @  http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/docket/cafc-pi-1/08-…

We consider here the ability of a copyright holder to dedicate certain work to free public use and yet enforce an Aopen source@ copyright license to control the future distribution and modification of that work. Appellant Robert Jacobsen (AJacobsen@) appeals from an order denying a motion for preliminary injunction. Jacobsen v. Katzer, No. 06-CV-01905 JSW, 2007 WL 2358628 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 17, 2007). Jacobsen holds a copyright to computer programming code. He makes that code available for public download from a website without a financial fee pursuant to the Artistic License, an Aopen source@ or public license. Appellees Matthew Katzer and Kamind Associates, Inc. (collectively AKatzer/Kamind@) develop commercial software products for the model train industry and hobbyists. Jacobsen accused Katzer/Kamind of copying certain materials from Jacobsen=s website and incorporating them into one of Katzer/Kamind=s software packages without following the terms of the Artistic License. Jacobsen brought an action for copyright infringement and moved for a preliminary injunction.

Government, Political/Regulatory/Legal, Technological, copyright, IPR, open source