No preliminary injunction in the Jacobsen case

Last year, the Jacobson/JMRI case produced an appeals court ruling to the effect that free software licenses are truly licenses; that result was seen as big victory for the community. Now the Law & Life: Silicon Valley weblog reports that, back in District Court, a request for a preliminary injunction based on that ruling has been turned down. "The District Court drew on a very recent Supreme Court decision which required a higher standard of proof of damages for the grant of a preliminary injunction: Jacobsen must prove that he is 'likely to succeed on the merits, that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips in his favor and that an injunction is in the public interest'. The Court then noted that Jacobsen had made no showing that he had actually suffered any of these potential harms and that Jacobsen had 'failed to proffer any evidence of any specific and actual harm suffered as a result of the alleged copyright infringement and he has failed to demonstrate that there is any continuing or ongoing conduct that indicates future harm is imminent.'"

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