[Pilsner]

Business law 101 tells us that: If you and I sign a contract with each other, but that contract has provisions which conflict with then current statutes, the contract is null and void, unless it has an applicable severability clause, in which case only the conflicting clauses are null and void, and the rest of the contract would stand.

Not if the professor is even marginally competent it doesn't. The default rule is that a party to a commercial (as opposed to consumer) contract may waive their statutory rights unless the statute specifically forbids waiver.

[HiTech RedNeck]

General shrinkwrap license.

The person who does not like the royalty required can always decline to use the product. That is how copyleft can and does work.

[PieterCasparzen]

Business law 101 tells us that: If you and I sign a contract with each other, but that contract has provisions which conflict with then current statutes, the contract is null and void, unless it has an applicable severability clause, in which case only the conflicting clauses are null and void, and the rest of the contract would stand.

Not if the professor is even marginally competent it doesn't. The default rule is that a party to a commercial (as opposed to consumer) contract may waive their statutory rights unless the statute specifically forbids waiver.

Note that I said "provisions which conflict with then current statutes", meaning...

the provisions are ILLEGAL.

That issue has nothing to do with waiving of rights.

Example: you (an independent contractor) and I (a corporate customer) contract that you will develop a simple website for me and I will pay you $25,000 to do it. Our contract says that you grant me copyright in the whole work product, that is, intermediate product(s) used in your process, all content, computer programs, HTML code, etc., and that you grant me this copyright to last a term of 500 years. Well, you don't have a 500-year copyright; that conflicts with copyright law. You can't convey the non-existent 500-year copyright in the contract. So the issue of severability then comes into play.