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<!--#set var="title" value="Legal Validity of Software Contracts" -->
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<h2>Legal Validity of Software Contracts</h2>
<p>
	This is a presentation that I gave in a law-related course at the New Jersey
	Institute of Technology (NJIT) in the Spring of 2012.
</p>
<p>
	In the presentation, I define software contracts (a.k.a. "end-user license
	agreements", "software license agreements", or simply "licenses") and
	explain the history of software copyright law and contracts.  I then examine
	the disputed legal validity of software contracts in three main areas:
	assent to terms (including "shrink wrap" and "click wrap" contracts),
	ownership of copies (the "licensed, not sold" argument), and conscionability
	and preemption.
</p>
<p>
	The presentation refers to statutory and case law in the United States, but
	the concepts should apply to almost any jurisdiction.
</p>
<h4>Slides</h4>
<p>
	The following are the slides I prepared for the presentation:
</p>
<ul>
	<li><a href="software-contracts.odp">OpenDocument Format</a></li>
	<li><a href="software-contracts.pdf">Portable Document Format</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
	Included in the OpenDocument version is the script to the presentation
	(in LibreOffice, look in the "Notes" tab).
</p>
<p>
	Many reader programs render stripes in the slide background of the PDF file.
	This is due to
	<a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cairo/+bug/164233">a bug</a>
	<a href="https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47706">in cairo</a>
	which has been fixed in a version newer than that which I used.
</p>
<h4>Copyright</h4>
<p>
	Copyright &copy; 2012 Patrick "P. J." M<span class="super">c</span>Dermott
	<br>
	All works related to this workshop, including this document, the flyer, the
	notes, and the session records may be used under the terms of the
	<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons
		Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license</a>.
</p>
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