Jacobsen v. Katzer Comes to a Close
In what TechRepublic calls a “big legal victory for open source,” the courts have finally ruled on Jacobsen v. Katzer. The suit arose after a software developer Robert Jacobsen developed code under the GNU Public License or “GPL” which was subsequently appropriated by Matthew Katzer. Katzer allegedly took the code and used it for his proprietary model train controlling software, KAMIND. In doing so, Katzer also removed all copyright notice and indication of Jacobsen’s original authorship, the former action that was in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
GPL is a public license that is often referred to as a “copyleft” in order to discern it from a copyright. The GNU license allows users to freely copy and change a work as long as they continue to offer subsequent users to do so as well. This, however, does not bar developers from charging a fee for open source software; rather, it only prevents them from making software with an open source foundation proprietary, as Katzer did with Jacobsen’s software.
The long drawn out suit, which began in 2004, encompassed copyright claims, patent claims, as well as cybersquatting claims and the aforementioned Digital Millennium Copyright Act claims. The court’s decision to uphold Jacobsen’s claim, award him $100,000 and bar Katzer from reproducing the code set a precedent for open source enforcement. Until this case, there had not been an instance in federal courts when a patent claim was ruled in favor of an open source licenser. This move is expected to give software developers confidence when developing code under the GPL license, as they now know that U.S. law recognizes the intellectually property rights protected under the license.
The discussion regarding open source development is likely to gain increasing relevance with the increasing popularity of open source software, such as Google’s Android and Nokia’s Symbian for mobile devices and Linux, which is used for various devices, most notably as an operating system alternative to Windows or OS X.
Monheit is the managing lawyer at Monheit Law, outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has practiced law since 1989. Michael Monheit was the managing attorney of the law offices of Herbert Monheit — now Silverman and Fodera — a firm founded by... Michael Monheit→
