The paper looks at the legal nature of so-called open licenses –
agreements designed to provide permissions to users and publishers
through “some rights reserved” clauses. The article starts with the
assertion that copyright licenses are contracts in Civil Law
jurisdictions, and looks at the opposing views and practice in Common
Law jurisdictions. The article particularly looks at recent case law in
the United States which deals specifically with the issue, and concludes
that there is now a clear jurisdictional split between both traditions on
whether these licenses are contracts
