• 한국디지털정책학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.205-228
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• 2004

오늘날 정보와 정보서비스 나아가 정보거래는 경제의 중심에 그 자리를 잡아가고 있다. 이러한 변화중의 하나가 방법의 다양화이다. 현대적 시장의 수요를 충족하는 정보제품을 제작하고 이를 배포함에 있어 그 방법의 다양화가 이루어지고 있는 것이다. 개인용 컴퓨터의 사용이 일반화됨에 따라 범용컴퓨터소프트웨어가 일반소매시장에서 거래되는데, 사용자는 이를 대부분 소프트웨어 상점에 매매의 형식으로 구입한다. 그러나 이 소프트웨어를 사용하기 위해서는 사용자가 동 소프트웨어의 출판인(publisher) 으로부터 라이센스를 득해야 하고, 이를 위해 출판인과사용자 사이에 라이센스 계약이 체결된다. 이러한 라이센스계약의 체결에 있어 소위 "쉬링크랩" (shrink-warp) 방식이 널리 사용되는데, 이 방식의 라이센스계약, 즉 쉬링크랩 라이센스 혹은 쉬링크랩라이센스계약이 미국 계약 법하에서 완전한 효력 즉 강제력을 가지는 지가 문제되어 왔다. 쉬링크랩라이센스는 소프트웨어거래의 효율성을 높이고 거래비용을 감소시킴으로써 규모의 경제를 가능케 하고 나아가 다양한 지적재산권의 보호를 받는 소프트웨어의 탄력적인 라이센스를 가능케 함으로써 결국 소프트웨어출판인과 최종사용자 모두가 그 혜택을 누리게 된다. 쉬링크랩라이센스에 의한 소프트웨어 거래의 경우 라이센스이용자에 의한 대금지급이 선행하고 그 이후에 비로소 계약조건의 검토가 행하여진다는 사정에 기하여 종래 판례법에서 그 강제력이 부인되어 오다가 정보 산업의 급속하게 성장하고 이에 따라 그 사용에 불가피하다는 현실적인 요구에 응하여 판례법은 물론 UCITA 라는 제정법에 의하여 그 강제력을 인정받게 되었다. UCITA 는 컴퓨터소프트웨어 등의 컴퓨터정보거래와 관련하여 체결되는 라이센스 계약의 모호한 법적 상태를 명확히 한다는 점에서 중요한 입법이라 평가된다. UCITA 는 쉬링크랩라이센스의 효력 문제와 동 라이센스에 적용될 법의 해결이라는 통일법으로서의 주요한 목적 중의 하나를 달성하고 있다. 더욱이 오늘날 우리 경제는 소위 정보혁명(information revolution) 이라 하는 또 다른 근본적 변화를 경험하고 있다.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.93-112
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• 2004

A license under UCITA(Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act) which represents the first comprehensive uniform computer information licensing law is not fundamentally rooted in intellectual property law such as patent or copyright law. A license under UCITA is simply a commercial contract, dependent wholly on the parties' ability to enter into a normal, commercial contract, just as a contract of sale or lease is simply and wholly a commercial contract. However, intellectual property rights may be licensed in a contract subject to UCITA. UCITA may not be used to vary or extend informational rights that are intellectual property rights, and expressly recognizes preemption by copyright, patent, or other federal intellectual property law in Section 105(b). Like the law of sales and leases, in general, the right to contract is constrained by principles of unconscionability, good faith and fair dealing, UCITA has an additional restraint, an express power for a court to deny enforcement of a provision in a licensing contract that violates fundamental public policy. This public policy defense is unique in UCITA. An essential purpose of this defense is to give courts some latitude in reconciling commercial licensing law with the principles of intellectual property law. Most intellectual property law is federal, and UCITA expressly recognizes the preemptive effect of that federal law. But the public policy defense gives courts an additional power to consider intellectual property principles purely within the context commercial law.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.20
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• pp.129-150
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• 2003

Software license agreements, to be useful in the mass market, could not be individually negotiated, and had to be standardized and concise. The software license agreement needs to be presented to the licensee-users in a fashion that would allow for mass distribution of software, also for it to enforceable, that would draw the users' attention to the terms and conditions under which the publisher allowed the use of the software. These needs have been accomplished, with or without fail, through so called the "shrink-wrap licenses" Shrink-wrap licenses purpose to transfer computer softwares to their users by defining the terms and conditions of use of the software without implicating the "first sale doctrine" of the Copyright Act. These shrink-wrap licenses have become essential to the software industry. However, in USA, the law applicable to these licenses has been unclear and unsettled. Courts have struggled to develop a coherent framework governing their enforceability. Meanwhile, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ("NCCUSL") in USA promulgated the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act ("UCITA") governing contracts for computer information transaction on July 29, 1999. One clear objective of UCITA was to settle the law governing the enforceability of shrink-wrap licenses. In these respects, this paper first introduces the various forms that shrink-wrap licenses take(at Part II. Section 1.), and explains the main advantages of them(at Part II. Section 2.) Here it shows how shrink-wrap licenses value themselves for both software publishers and users, including that shrink-wrap licenses are a valuable contracting tool because they provide vital information and rights to software users and because they permit the contracting flexibility that is essential for today's software products. Next, this paper describes the current legal framework applicable to shrink-wrap licenses in USA(at Part III). Here it shows that in USA the development of case law governing shrink-wrap licenses occurred in two distinct stages. At first stage, judicial hostility toward shrink-wrap licenses marked such that they were not enforced pursuant to Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. At second stage, courts began to recognize the pervasiveness of shrink-wrap licenses, their indispensability to the rapidly expanding information technology industry, and the urgent need to enforce such licenses in order to maintain low prices for consumers of computer hardware or software, resulting in the recognition of shrink-wrap licenses. Finally, in view of the importance of UCITA, this paper examines how it will affect the enforceability of shrink-wrap licenses(at Part IV). The drafters of UCITA, as well as the scholars and practitioners who have criticized it, agree that it validates shrink-wrap licenses, provided certain procedural protections are afforded to purchasers. These procedural protections include the licensee end-user must (i) manifest his assent to the shrink-wrap license, (ii) have an opportunity to review the shrink-wrap license, (iii) have a right to return the product without costs.