Katzer/Kamind had taken free software (under the Artistic License) and created a non-free derivative product. It was in question whether or not the original creator (Jacobsen) could sue under copyright law. The court ruled in his favor.
The case involves a guy who created some “free” software that allows users to program model railroad train systems. A company used some of his software in their own commercial offering, and, in doing so, violated the terms of the Artistic License he was using. No one seems to dispute that the Artistic License was violated. The question before the court is what that means — and whether the end result means that the creator of the original software has a claim on the breach of the license, or if he can sue for copyright infringement. The guy who created the software, Jacobsen, claims that if you violate the Artistic License, then it reverts to copyright infringement. The makers of the commercial software, Katzer/Kamind, counter that there is no copyright claim here, as they merely broke the terms of the Artistic License, not copyright itself. And, in fact, since Jacobsen gives the software away for free willingly, there’s no copyright claim at all.
The court sided with Jacobsen, and Slashdot and Lessig are celebrating this (perhaps accurately) as a huge win for alternative licenses such as the Artistic License and Creative Commons Licenses — basically allowing them to revert to copyright claims if the terms of the license are violated. For supporters of such licenses, it’s certainly a good decision. When I first read the decision, though, I was concerned that it seemed to contradict the recent ruling against Universal Music which stated that simply stamping “not for resale” on a CD doesn’t give Universal additional rights above and beyond copyright. That ruling seemed like a good decision, too — but in some ways it could be seen to conflict with this new decision. Though there may also be a way to read them that suggests the decisions agree.
Cool beans, yo. Even with my pessimism though, I couldn’t really see this case going the other way.