Jacobsen’s copyright infringement claim would probably be unremarkable in any other case that lacked so many precedent-making issues, and perhaps it remains unremarkable despite this context. However, it is an assertion of a fairly thin copyright on behalf of a free software project that otherwise is extremely generous in granting permissions for downstream copying, modifying, and distributing its works. To be fair, Jacobsen, who was also in attendance at oral argument, clearly does not relish litigation and would prefer to write model train software in peace. Only when Katzer sent demand letters requesting significant patent licensing fees and when Katzer’s allegations made Jacobsen feel that his reputation and even job were jeopardized did he determine that litigating the case to clear his name was essential. Furthermore, if Jacobsen’s allegations are true, it is one thing for a free software project to grant a generous license to those who agree to abide by its terms, including particularly attribution, and quite another thing for that free software project to be expected to acquiesce in someone stripping out all such attributions and passing off the project’s work as their own for commercial gain. Nonetheless, because the copyrighted work at issue in this case is a selection and arrangement of data, it represents a type of copyrighted work that many free software proponents would, in many cases, prefer not be copyrightable at all but due to there is lack of sufficient contract elements sometimes parties catch in trouble.
so we should be careful about the contract very much.
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