bruceki@microsoft.UUCP (Bruce KING) (02/24/90)
There's only one case that I was able to come up with re: the enforceability of shrink-wrap licenses. The citation is : 847-f2d-255 VAULT. It's a louisiana court case involving a shrink wrap license and some other issues. Basically it was ruled that part of the shrink wrap license was already covered by existing copyright laws. So it didn't set precedent as to whether the shrinkwrap license was enforceable, just said that the license wouldn't apply in this case, so that its viability wasn't questioned. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to offer an opinion on the enforceability of shrinkwrap licenses. . Interested parties can look up the citation. An opinion of mine is that this increasing amount of litigation over picyune points is not a replacement for a good product. Let's take it to an extreme: "I have a copyright on the color RED! No one else can use the color RED in any of their products!" Produce a good product. People will buy it. Produce a poor product, sue your competitors. Yea. Claimer: my opinions are mine. bruceki@microsoft.uucp / (206) 882-8080
mnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin) (02/25/90)
Says Bruce King: "Produce a good product. People will buy it. Produce a poor product, sue your competitors. Yea." You forgot to mention the best formulation: "Invest in researching and developing a good product. Watch your competitors copy it for a fraction of the cost." --Mike Mike Godwin, UT Law School |"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids mnemonic@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu or| the rich as well as the poor to sleep under mgodwin@rpp386.cactus.org or | bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!mgodwin | bread." --Anatole France
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (02/27/90)
In article <25058@ut-emx.UUCP> mnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin) writes: > Says Bruce King: > "Produce a good product. People > will buy it. Produce a poor product, sue your competitors. Yea." > You forgot to mention the best formulation: "Invest in researching > and developing a good product. Watch your competitors copy it for > a fraction of the cost." And the also common: "Develop a good product. Watch someone develop a better one that looks like yours. Sue them anyway." And then again, there's: "Develop a good product. License it to someone and watch them sue anyone who tries to do the same. Sue them." No, I don't have any solutions. Just more questions. -- _--_|\ Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>. / \ \_.--._/ Xenix Support -- it's not just a job, it's an adventure! v "Have you hugged your wolf today?" `-_-'
Nagle@cup.portal.com (John - Nagle) (02/27/90)
A precedent from Louisiana is not likely to be indicative of what will happen in other states. Louisiana is different. The legal system there, unlike that of any other state, is based on the Napoleonic Code of France. All other states have legal systems derived from English civil law. John Nagle
jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II) (03/01/90)
In article <27360@cup.portal.com> Nagle@cup.portal.com (John - Nagle) writes: > A precedent from Louisiana is not likely to be indicative of what >will happen in other states. Louisiana is different. The legal system >there, unlike that of any other state, is based on the Napoleonic Code >of France. All other states have legal systems derived from English >civil law. this is false. many of the precedents for case law in other states are set in louisiana. true, louisiana has many very bizarre laws [ like having to write your parents every two years or you can be disinherited, or having to ransom them from pirates to avoid the same fate ;-) ], but most of the legal concepts exist both in napoleanic code and english common law. the notions regarding contracts are very similiar between louisiana and the rest of the country. a license is a contract, and if i were a practicing attorney i would strongly consider using any precedent set in louisiana regarding shrinkwrap licenses as part of a case in a common law state. provided the principles were similiar in both cases, etc. of particular interest to me was that some of the earliest precedents set regarding dram shop laws came from louisiana, which probably has the highest per capita number of bars of any state, excluding only nevada. i had always thought bartender liability came from torts and all that yicky english common law stuff i didn't understand [ having lived in that god forsaken state for too many years ... ] -- John F. Haugh II UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832 Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org