Examining the enforceability of shrink-wrap license by analyzing ProCD vs. zeidenberg

• Main Authors: Li shun zoung, 李欣蓉
• Other Authors: 張瑞星
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/70686365178492007629

碩士 === 南台科技大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 96 === Due to the rapid development of digital technology, the requests of software and Internet are gradually dependent and popular for individuals. The growth and innovation of technology create enormous profits. They give new challenge to the laws and also have influences increasingly to the intellectual property rights (IPR). As more and more new Internet techniques are being developed, some changes in transaction are relatively taking place. The changes are widely involved in the law and are likely against the present legislation. For instance, some software companies make a form agreement by themselves before the sale of products. The customers can only choose either to buy or not to accept it without any negotiations. The way of contract making used by those companies is to balance the current situations due to that the Internet convenience and nowadays contracting system cannot provide well protection and licensing. Furthermore the businesses are able to lower the costs without signing individual contracts and even make the agreement which may be more beneficial to themselves. Numbers of controversy over the unlike agreement achievement in software licensing and general contracting signing are issued. For those computer businesses, huge amount of money is invested in the investigation of software. The uses of shrink-wrap licenses, click-wrap licenses, and browse-wrap agreement are of benefit in order to counterbalance the expenditure of development quickly. However, the customers might lose certain rights as soon as they pay for the products. They seem unlikely to clearly understand the agreement or to realize the relationship with manufacturers made by the contract. The text of the report will have a detailed discussion on what copyright laws can provide to the customers while they meet those form agreements which may be of advantage to the software manufacturers and how the current legislation can give positive clarifications to the customers. In terms of world-wide use of copyright licenses in last decade, recently there are lots of controversial issues discussed in the US especially the argument about whether shrink-wrap licenses are enforceable. The paper will debate on the content of licenses in copyright law, and discuss both positive and negative opinion using the example of ProCD, one of the most famous cases in US copyright history. Moreover, the influence on the copyright law will also be analyzed if shrink-wrap licenses become permitted.