Free licences as a contract or permission? What is more feasible?
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This paper explores the possibilities and approaches to the legal nature of the so called “free” or “open” licences from the perspective of a Central European Civil law system, such as the system of the Czech Republic. Firstly the Czech copyright system is briefly introduced. Next, the article analyses the possible utilization of unilateral licence (permission) in a Czech civil law, which traditionally construes the copyright licence as a contract. Then the practical problems connected with this approach are identified and discussed. These include choice of law, moral rights, obligatory written form and legal certainty of a licensee. The paper concludes with a proposition for a more structured approach to the issue at stake: an interpretation of the free licences as a simple consent (permission) is possible, however not viable if the right holder wants to oblige the other party, e.g. include the “copyleft” clause. Thus the interpretation as a contractual obligation is advocated. |
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