Open source wins landmark legal validation

The validity of open source software licenses won a major court victory when a U.S. federal judge ruled this week that copyright law allows programmers to control the modification of their software even though it's free. The ruling makes legal sense, said copyright attorney Ross Dannenberg.

Open source developers now have newly clarified protection, thanks to an appeals court ruling over the validity of their licenses. A judge with U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday that programmers who "engage in open source licensing" and copyright their work do "have the right to control the modification and distribution" of their products.

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