Intellectual Property Boston College Law School March 19, 2008 Software – Copyright – Fair Use
Dec 21, 2015
Intellectual Property
Boston College Law School
March 19, 2008
Software – Copyright – Fair Use
Lewis Galoob Toys v. Nintendo
NintendoNES
Nintendo OS
Cartridges
Game Genie
ClearPlay
Reverse Engineering
Decompile
} Var {for variable function …} num, count, primes, …. Begin {of program} {*****initialize var … num :=2;{the prime num … count :=0;{number of pri … times :=0;{number of col … {*****ask user how many … write (‘How many prime … read (primes); writeln; writeln; {carriage returns} writeln;
Source Code
11101001 01111001 0010110010010000 10010000 1100110110101011 01000011 0110111101110000 01111001 0110010001010010 01001100 0100000101101110 01100011 0000001000000100 00000000 1011001111101001 01111001 0010110010010000 10010000 1100110110101011 01000011 0110111101110000 01111001 0110010001010010 01001100 0100000101101110 01100011 0000001000000100 00000000 1011001111101001 01111001 0010110010010000 10010000 1100110110101011 01000011 0110111101110000 01111001 01100100
Object Code
Sega OS
Sega v. Accolade
Sega Genesis
SegaLicenseeLicenseeLicenseeLicensee Accolade
Sega v. Accolade• Results
– Intermediate copying not always privileged– Functionality does not eliminate all protection– Section 117 does not privilege the copying– Intermediate copying is fair use
• Commercial purpose, yes, but okay
• Harm to market not dispositive, where fair compet.
• Nature of work is functional
• Copied the entire work
Sony v. Connectix
Sony Playstation
Sony BIOS
SonyLicenseesLicenseesLicenseesLicensees
MAC
VGS
Administrative
• Next Class– Finish Software
• Read V.C and D.