Free Licesnes Upheld

As Larry Lessig says, this is huge.

…the [Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit] has held that free licenses such as the CC licenses set conditions (rather than covenants) on the use of copyrighted work. When you violate the condition, the license disappears, meaning you’re simply a copyright infringer. This is the theory of the GPL and all CC licenses. Put precisely, whether or not they are also contracts, they are copyright licenses which expire if you fail to abide by the terms of the license.

A big step forward for validation of Creative Commons and GPL licenses. Congratulations to all who fought for this for the rest of us.

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