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License Contracts, Free Software and Creative Commons in Portuguese Law

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Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and other Alternative License Models

Part of the book series: Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law ((GSCL,volume 12))

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Abstract

Free and open source software (FOSS) is distributed in Portugal under the terms of licenses which are not ‘legal free’. On the contrary, these licenses raise difficult legal issues concerning notably the law of contracts (e.g. formal requirements, standard terms and liability disclaimers), copyright law (e.g. statutory requirements of authorizations, equitable remunerations, and moral rights), competition law (e.g. abuse of dominant position) and the law of public procurement (notably the requirement of open standards). The same applies, mutatis mutandis, to Creative Commons licenses. This paper addresses such legal issues looking for the answers provided by Portuguese law, taking also into account legislation and case-law of the European Union.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Código da Propriedade Industrial (CPI), enacted by Decree-Law No 36/2003 of 5 March, as last amended by Law No 46/2011 of 24 June.

  2. 2.

    Código do Direito de Autor e dos Direitos Conexos (CDADC), enacted by Decree-Law No 63/85 of March 1985, as last amended by Law No 32/2015 of 24 April. Copyright regulation is complemented by special Acts, notably the Software Act (Decree-Law No 252/94 of 20 October) and the Databases Act (Decree-Law No 122/2000 of 4 July).

  3. 3.

    Ascensão 2011; Almeida 2011; Pereira 2011a.

  4. 4.

    Pereira 1999 (copyright); Marques 2008 (industrial property).

  5. 5.

    On these licensing schemes in Portuguese literature see e.g. Pereira 2008, Leitão 2011.

  6. 6.

    Law No 36/2011 of 21 June.

  7. 7.

    European Commission 2007.

  8. 8.

    Civil Code, Article 234.

  9. 9.

    Civil Code, Articles 940 and 1129.

  10. 10.

    Civil Code, Article 280.

  11. 11.

    Civil Code, Article 219.

  12. 12.

    Code of Industrial Property, Article 32(2); Code of Copyright, Article 41(2).

  13. 13.

    Supreme Court of Justice, judgment of 14 March 2006, proc. 06B231 – www.dgsi.pt; Rebello 2002. For a (critical) review of Portuguese literature and jurisprudence on this issue, Pereira 2008.

  14. 14.

    More recently, Supreme Court of Justice, 5 May 2013, proc. 7860/06.0TBCSC.L1.S1 – www.dgsi.pt. On this issue, Marques 2008, 2011.

  15. 15.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 11(2). See eg Ascnsão 1990; Pereira 2004, 2001c.

  16. 16.

    Rocha 1994; Cordeiro 1994; Pereira 2001, 2011a; Trabuco 2008b; Bessa 2012.

  17. 17.

    Decree-Law No 446/85 of 25 October (drafted after the German Act on general contract terms) and later amended to implement the EC Directive 93/13 on unfair standard terms.

  18. 18.

    Decree-Law No 446/85, Article 1(1)(2).

  19. 19.

    Decree-Law No 446/85, Articles 5, 6 and 8.

  20. 20.

    Decree-Law No 446/85, Article 18(a).

  21. 21.

    Article 96 of Commercial Code (enacted by Royal Act of 28 June 1888 as later amended), Article 96.

  22. 22.

    Law No 24/96 of 31 July (as last amended by Decree-Law No 47/2014 of 28 July), Article 7(3).

  23. 23.

    Decree-Law No 238/86 of 19 August (as amended by Decree-Law No 42/88 of 9 February).

  24. 24.

    Code of Copyright, Article 41(3).

  25. 25.

    Civil Code, Article 238.

  26. 26.

    Civil Code, Article 921.

  27. 27.

    Decree-Law No 67/2003 of 8 April – implements EC Directive on the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees (1999/44/EC) -, as amended by Decree-Law No 84/2008 of 21 May.

  28. 28.

    It might also be construed as a donation, where the license confers a perpetual right to use the software, including the right to assign it to a third party.

  29. 29.

    Civil Code, Articles 1133(1) and 1134.

  30. 30.

    Decree-Law No 446/85, Article 18(a)(b)(c). See Monteiro 2011.

  31. 31.

    Decree-Law No 446/85, Article 12.

  32. 32.

    Article 10 of Decree-Law No 383/89 of 6 November as last amended by Decree-Law No 131/2001 of 24 April.

  33. 33.

    Civil Code, Article 762(2).

  34. 34.

    Civil Code, Article 432(2).

  35. 35.

    Civil Code, Article 886.

  36. 36.

    Decree-Law No 446/85, Article 22(1)b.

  37. 37.

    Civil Code, Article 799(1).

  38. 38.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 5(a) and Article 10.

  39. 39.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 6.

  40. 40.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 10(1)(2).

  41. 41.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 11(1).

  42. 42.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 11(2).

  43. 43.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 11(3).

  44. 44.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 8(1)(2).

  45. 45.

    According to the European Court of Justice, judgment of 3 July 2012 (C-128/11, UsedSoft GmbH v Oracle International Corp), ‘Articles 4(2) and 5(1) of Directive 2009/24 must be interpreted as meaning that, in the event of the resale of a user licence entailing the resale of a copy of a computer program downloaded from the copyright holder’s website, that licence having originally been granted by that rightholder to the first acquirer for an unlimited period in return for payment of a fee intended to enable the rightholder to obtain a remuneration corresponding to the economic value of that copy of his work, the second acquirer of the licence, as well as any subsequent acquirer of it, will be able to rely on the exhaustion of the distribution right under Article 4(2) of that directive, and hence be regarded as lawful acquirers of a copy of a computer program within the meaning of Article 5(1) of that directive and benefit from the right of reproduction provided for in that provision.’

  46. 46.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 11(3).

  47. 47.

    Copyright Act, Article 62.

  48. 48.

    See Ascensão 1990, 1992; Cordeiro 1994; Rocha & Cordeiro 1995.

  49. 49.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 9.

  50. 50.

    Vieira 1999, 2005; Pereira 2001; Martins & Marques 2006; Saavedra 1998.

  51. 51.

    Judgment of 29 November 2012, Proc. 957/03.0TBCBR.C2.S1 – www.dgsi.pt.

  52. 52.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 3(4), and Code of Copyright, Article 14(4).

  53. 53.

    See, for example, the registration form of the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) available at http://www.spautores.pt/assets_live/252/inscri_o.pdf.

  54. 54.

    http://www.spautores.pt/perguntas-frequentes/servico-juridicos.

  55. 55.

    Shortly, levies apply to statutory lawful uses, not to unlawful use or lawful use by agreement – European Court of Justice, judgment of 10 April 2014 (C-435/12, ACI Adam v. Thuiskopie – cvria.eu).

  56. 56.

    Law No 62/98 of 1 September (last amended by Law No 49/2015 of 5 June), Article 1(2).

  57. 57.

    Code of Copyright, Article 56.

  58. 58.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 5(a).

  59. 59.

    Decree-Law No 252/94, Article 3(5).

  60. 60.

    Supreme Court of Justice, judgment of 29 November 2012, proc. 957/03.0TBCBR.C2.S1 – dgsi.pt.

  61. 61.

    Pereira 2008.

  62. 62.

    Code of Copyright, Article 210-G and Article 211.

  63. 63.

    Law No 19/2012 of 8 May.

  64. 64.

    Trabuco 2008a; Pereira 2011b, 2014.

  65. 65.

    Law No 19/2012, Article 11.

  66. 66.

    Law No 36/2011 of 21 June.

  67. 67.

    Pereira 2012.

  68. 68.

    Law No 36/2011, Article 9.

  69. 69.

    Decision of the Council of Ministers No 91/2012 of 8 November.

  70. 70.

    Enacted by Decree-Law No 18/2008 of 29 January, as last amended by Decree-Law No 149/2012 of 12 July.

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Legislation and Case-law

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Alexandre L. Dias Pereira

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  1. Faculty of Law, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Axel Metzger

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Pereira, A.L.D. (2016). License Contracts, Free Software and Creative Commons in Portuguese Law. In: Metzger, A. (eds) Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and other Alternative License Models. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21560-0_18

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