Trade Practices Issues of Infringing Open Source Software
Brendan Scott
Standard (30 minutes) on Wednesday, 24 November 2010 14:30 - 15:00 in room Room 3
This year I have worked on a research project under a Linux Australia
grant looking into what issues arise under the Trade Practices Act where
a person sells infringing copies of open source software. One of the
main findings of that research was that a vendor selling an infringing
copy of open source software is likely to be in breach of at least one
section of Part V the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) relating to
misleading or deceptive statements or conduct, and likely more than one.
There are many cases in which such breaches have been found in relation
to infringing copies of software. Even where a vendor only offers to
sell (as opposed to actually selling) an infringing copy they are still
likely to be in breach of the Act. In this talk we will explain the
project's findings and explain the reasoning involved.
Brendan Scott
Open Source Law
Brendan is the principal and founder of Open Source Law, a legal
practice based in Sydney. Brendan has over 15 years of experience in
dealing with IT and communications legal issues. Brendan is a director
and founding member of Open Source Industry Australia Limited. He
donated his time to represent OSIA at Standards Australia in respect of
the OOXML ISO process and has drafted a number of submissions to various
government inquiries on behalf of OSIA. Brendan gave advice to the SFLC
on Australian law issues in the drafting of GPL v3. Brendan is a past
president of the New South Wales Society for Computers and the Law and a
past editor of its journal. Brendan is on the editorial board of the
Internet Law Bulletin and is a member of the FSFE Freedom Task Force.