Re: Free license

Gerry Bluhm <gbluhm[_at_]head-cfa.harvard.edu> ... wrote:
>

[snip]
> > Isn't a license a form of contract? Doesn't a contract require
> > consideration? Where's the consideration here? Is my agreement
> > not to modify the program sufficient? Or is there another theory
> > going on here?

Charles McGarry wrote:
>
> A license can be the subject of a gift, like almost anything else. It
> doesn't have to be a contractual right.

So a license is basically a grant of rights, which can be bought or sold (or given) according to its terms, and there is no contract except so far as the acquisition of the license is concerned?

I am not sure whether what I am about to say holds entirely true for the US but just to clarify :-

(a) (in England at least) a licence in the strict sense of the word conveys no real "right" such as an interest in property. It simply permits the licensee to do something which would otherwise be illegal.

(b) (in England at least) licences are revocable at will unless "coupled to the grant of an interest" or placed in a contract to create a "contractual licence".

[Just by way of a *purely* local aside, although, in theory, revoking a contractual licence in the face of the contract terms would only be a breach of contract sounding in damages, the courts in England have (since the early 1900s) used their equitable jusrisdiction to ensure that a licence purpotedly so is kept in force through such remedies as specific performance]

Gary Lea,
Reading
<g.r.lea[_at_]reading.ac.uk> Received on Thu Apr 18 1996 - 15:49:25 GMT