Spring, 2013, New York University Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law
2 N.Y.U. J. of Intell. Prop. & Ent. Law 257
LENGTH: 13739 words
ARTICLE: THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING AND OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE
NAME: ELI GREENBAUM
it’s a very good and useful paper, and it has a footnote that reminds me of a very important work by Steve Weber that goes to the gist of what it means to have a license - it isn’t only to indicate a set of legal terms, but also to mark the rights holder as part of a group that follows a clear set of principles. it’s power is to add the content to that group’s assets and to mark it as such.
This is the work, as cited by Greenbaum (i’m combining ft 4 & 5) STEVEN WEBER, THE SUCCESS OF OPEN SOURCE 197 (2004) describing business models that depend on licensing structures describing a license as a “de facto constitution” for an open source organization, which, ”[i]n the absence of hierarchical authority, … becomes the core statement of the social structure that defines the community of … a project”).