License Contracts, Free Software and Creative Commons

This report discusses legal questions raised by licenses in the field of free and open source software (FOSS) and other alternative license models from a comparative perspective. It summarizes and juxtaposes national reports on said licensing schemes from 25 different jurisdictions. To begin with, the report provides general information on FOSS and alternative licensing such as relevant legislation and case-law (Sect. 17.2). It then continues to analyse FOSS and other alternative licenses in the light of contract law (Sect. 17.4) and copyright law (Sect. 17.3). For example, it addresses the questions whether alternative licenses are construed as contracts or unilateral acts and whether they contradict an author”s statutory right for equitable remuneration. Moreover, the report briefly deals with other related aspects such as potential conflicts with patent and trademark claims (Sect. 17.5). It comes to the conclusion (Sect. 17.6) that many of the legal uncertainties that FOSS and other alternative licenses like creative commons faced in the past have been resolved. However, new questions have arisen and deserve further scrutiny in the future.