SFLC Files Amicus Brief in Jacobsen v. Katzer
Amicus Brief calls for injunctive relief for FLOSS Developers
June 15, 2009
Today, SFLC filed a brief amicus curiae in the case Jacobsen v. Katzer before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). In the brief, we argue that a Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) developer whose license has been violated should be able to call upon the courts to prevent further infringing distributions.
In an earlier appeal, the CAFC correctly upheld the availability of copyright remedies in cases of FLOSS license violations. However, upon remand, the lower court held that Jacobsen had not shown sufficient harm to qualify for an injunction against the defendant. That decision overlooked the multitude of harms — to developers, development communities, and project productivity — which we outline in our brief.
The CAFC recognized in the prior appeal that injunctions are essential to enforcing FLOSS licenses, and we are confident that it will do so again. You can read the brief on SFLC’s resources page, and listen to our special podcast episode about the brief.