the following clause (versions of which also appeared in GPLv1 and GPLv2) explaining the function of the license: “Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it.”[1]
Every version of the GPL grants users of the licensed software the rights to engage in the otherwise-infringing acts of copying,[2] modifying,[3] and redistributing[4] the licensed work. Like all open-content licenses, however, the GPL attaches conditions that limit the scope of the authorization the license confers. A licensee’s exercise of one of the rights granted by the license (to copy, modify, or redistribute the work) without observing the applicable conditions exceeds the licensee’s authority, and renders that use unauthorized (and, thus, infringing).[5]
Many of the GPL’s conditions exist to inform downstream users about the legal status of the work and to provide them with the resources necessary to execute the rights granted under the license.[6] To ensure that licensees are able to exercise their power to alter the software, the GPLv3 mandates that the software’s source code also be made available whenever the software is distributed in executable or binary form.[7]
- ↑ GPLv3, supra note 53, pmbl. (emphasis added); see also Miller, supra note 55, at 497 (“The GPL does not destroy a software author’s original copyright; rather, it is predicated squarely upon it.”); cf. GPLv1, supra note 17, pmbl. (“We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.”); GPLv2, supra note 52, pmbl. (same).
- ↑ See GPLv1, supra note 17, §§ 1, 3; GPLv2, supra note 52; GPLv3, supra note 53, §§ 0, 2.
- ↑ See GPLv1, supra note 17, § 2; GPLv2, supra note 52; GPLv3, supra note 53, §§ 5, 6.
- ↑ See GPLv1, supra note 17, §§ 1, 3; GPLv2, supra note 52; GPLv3, supra note 53, §§ 4, 6.
- ↑ See Jacobsen v. Katzer, 535 F.3d 1373, 1379–83 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (copying of FOSS work without complying with the terms of the governing license, if proved, would constitute infringement of copyright); Storage Tech. Corp. v. Custom Hardware Eng’g & Consulting, Inc., 421 F.3d 1307, 1316 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (copyright infringement results if otherwise infringing activity occurs without the copyright holder’s authorization); ITOFCA, Inc. v. MegaTrans Logistics, Inc., 322 F.3d 928, 940 (7th Cir. 2003) (“A licensee infringes the owner’s copyright if its use exceeds the scope of its license.” (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)); Graham v. James, 144 F.3d 229, 237 (2d Cir. 1998) (“ ‘[i]f the nature of a licensee’s violation consists of a failure to satisfy a condition to the license . . . it follows that the rights dependent upon satisfaction of such condition have not been effectively licensed, and therefore, any use by the licensee is without authority from the licensor and may therefore, constitute an infringement of copyright.’ ” (citation omitted)); S.O.S., Inc. v. Payday, Inc., 886 F.2d 1081, 1087 (9th Cir. 1989). See generally GPLv3, supra note 53, § 9 (“nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License.”).
- ↑ See, e.g., GPLv3, supra note 53, §§ 4, 5 (requiring information about the license to be conveyed with any verbatim or modified copies of the licensed work distributed by the licensee).
- ↑ See id. § 6.
