Recent Developments in Shrinkwrap, Clickwrap and Browsewrap Licenses in the United States
AbstractThe explosive growth in e-commerce has been enabled by contracts that license the use of software applications and electronic information which are distributed online, and by license contracts that create the terms of use for online services. Paradoxically, this most essential building block for electronic commerce, the software license, remains in a state of limbo in the United States. The strong legislative solution needed to clarify the distinctions between software sales and software licenses has not been forthcoming. The result, as one might expect, is a crazy quilt of seemingly irreconcilable cases. While objectively assessing the relative equities of the parties is not a fool-proof predictor of judicial decision-making, parties in litigation regarding these agreements would be wise to consider the relative equities in their favor as closely as the legal precedents involved. |