In the much-watched case of SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd., the European Court of Justice has ruled that European copyright protection does not extend to computer programs. World Programming copied SAS’ programming language without access to, and without decompiling, SAS’ computer code. According to the court, reproducing functionality was not copyright infringement so […]
When can a plaintiff obtain a preliminary injunction relating to a customer’s use and distribution of copyrighted software beyond the scope of the customer’s license? The court in Accusoft Corp. v. Quest Diagnostics, Inc., No. 12-40007 (D. Mass. April 18, 2012), granted a preliminary injunction, but limited the preliminary relief so as to properly balance […]
In a high-profile case, the Second Circuit has defined contours of the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512(c); those provisions relieve a service provider of liability for certain copyright infringements. Viacom Int’l, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc, Nos. 10-3270-cv and 10-3342-cv (2nd Cir. April 5, 2012). In a detailed […]
Taking a practical “I-know-it-when-I see-it” approach, a Nevada court considered the applicability of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2), and other statutes, to mechanisms that allowed users to receive proprietary satellite programming for free. The court entered a preliminary injunction, and authorized impoundment of devices and codes used to access the […]
A pro se plaintiff was unable to plead adequately that Viacom had knowingly misrepresented that the plaintiff infringed Viacom’s copyrights when Viacom sent DMCA takedown notices to various content providers. Ouellette v. Viacom International, Inc., No. CV 10-133-M-DWM-JCL (D. Mont. March 13, 2012). Therefore, the court granted Viacom’s motion for judgment on the pleadings under […]
A California court recently reaffirmed the principle that a restrictive software license is not a “sale” for purposes of the federal copyright laws, and that the license could not be used to assert a defense to copyright infringement based on the first sale doctrine. Adobe Systems Inc. v. Hoops Enterprise LLC, No. 4:10-cv-02769-CW (N.D. Cal., Feb. […]
Regardless of your philosophical leanings on the issue of software patents, if you’re in the software business, you need to worry about them. A lot of people, such as the inventor of modern e-mail, are opposed to software patents. I have certainly written patent applications with many software engineers who did not like the idea. […]