Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 20:40:50 +0000
From: Dale Amon <amon@vnl.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: General interest: lawyers talking about GPL and Linux
Message-ID: <20010302204050.J26403@vnl.com>
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______________________________
           
"Legal Implications of Open-Source Software"
      University of Illinois Law Review, Forthcoming
      
      BY:  DAVID MCGOWAN
              University of Minnesota Law School

 Contact:  DAVID MCGOWAN
   Email:  Mailto:dmcgowan@tc.umn.edu
  Postal:  University of Minnesota Law School
           229 19th Avenue South
           Minneapolis, MN 55455  USA
   
ABSTRACT:
 This article examines some legal and economic aspects of
 software produced under licenses that provide for distribution
 of source code and allow downstream users to copy, modify, and
 redistribute code. The article focuses in particular on the
 General Public License (GPL), which grants permission to engage
 in such activities on the condition that downstream users make
 their own works available on the same terms on which they
 received the code. Production under this model is informal
 compared to production in conventional firms. Persons who work
 on projects utilizing these licenses do not receive wages from
 those who initiate or maintain the projects. This model
 therefore poses questions about traditional assumptions of agent
 behavior that characterize the Theory of the Firm literature.
 
 This article first analyzes the agency question and contends  
 that classifying software by license terms provides an
 incomplete understanding of this form of production. The social 
 structures necessary to sustain production vary depending upon   
 the complexity, and therefore cost, of different projects; the 
 market position of different projects is relevant as well.
 Production of simple, low-cost projects may require little if  
 any coordination and therefore little if any hierarchy.
 Production of complex projects, such as the GNU/Linux operating
 system, require coordination and are in fact characterized by
 hierarchy. The article discusses the social factors that have   
 thus far supported these hierarchies. The article also analyzes
 the reciprocal licensing model of the GPL, and discusses various
 issues relevant to its enforceability under existing copyright
 and contract law.
  
-------------------------------

-- 
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Use Linux: A computer        Dale Amon, CEO/MD
is a terrible thing          Village Networking Ltd
to waste.                    Belfast, Northern Ireland
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