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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 © 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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