Software

In Europe, the existence of and rights conferred by copyright in software is determined by Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs (which replaced Directive 91/250/EEC).  The directive aims to harmonise the law in this area and deal with issues raised by the need for interoperability.

AG Opinion, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Case Law, CDSM Directive, CJEU, Communication (right of), Database right, Digital Single Market, Enforcement, European Union, Infringement, Ownership, Round-up, Software

(University College London) and (Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

In this new series we will be updating readers every three months on developments in EU copyright law. This will include Court of Justice (CJEU) and General Court judgments, Advocate Generals’ (AG) opinions, and important policy developments.   The end of 2020 Since this is the first issue of our round up, we have also…

Authorship, Case Law, Contract, Ownership, Software, United Kingdom

, (Bristows LLP)/ /1 Comment

Summary The IPEC has held than an employee produced software in the course of his employment, despite his claims he did most of his work in his own time, at home, and on a personal computer. In the decision, Penhallurick v MD5 Limited [2021] EWHC 293 (IPEC), Hacon J suggested that such factors did not…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, France, Infringement, Software

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The Court of Justice of the EU has handed down its judgment (18 December 2019, Case C-666/18) following the request for a preliminary ruling from the Paris Court of Appeal (IT Development v Free Mobile, 16 October 2018, No 17/02679; see our post here). In answer to the question: does the breach of a software…

Case Law, Germany, Infringement, Making available (right of), Software

(Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam)/ /1 Comment

On 28 March 2019, the German Federal Court (BGH) was asked to review a lower court’s decision on the legality of the unauthorised uploading of the 30 day free trial version of Microsoft software on an online trader’s website. This gave the BGH the chance to further clarify the applicability of the German Copyright Act…

Case Law, Ownership, Software, United Kingdom

(University of Reading)/ /Leave a comment

A software development company was held to own the copyright in source code authored by its sole programmer on the basis that the relationship between the parties was one of employer and employee. Case date: 30 July 2018 Case number: [2018] EWHC 1924 (Ch) Court: High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division A…

Case Law, Fair Use, Software, Subject matter (copyrightable), USA

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In January 2018, Google filed a petition to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review two adverse rulings by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the Oracle Am. Inc. v. Google Inc. case. The first was the Federal Circuit’s 2014 decision overturning a district court ruling that several thousand declarations that Google…

Case Law, CJEU, France, Infringement, Software

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Following the Paris Court of Appeal judgment of 10 May 2016 (No 14/25055), the French courts have tended to consider that a licensee who breaches the terms of a software licence agreement does not commit copyright infringement, and that general contractual liability applies instead. In the aforementioned case, the Court dismissed the licensor’s (Oracle) claims…

Conference, European Union, Netherlands, Remedies, Software

(Institute for Information Law (IViR) ) and (Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /1 Comment

Blockchain technology seems to be all the rage nowadays. In simple terms, blockchain enables parties who do not know or trust each other to maintain a common set of records without the need for a trusted third party intermediary. Bitcoin, the first major successful cryptocurrency, uses blockchain to keep track of the supply and flow…

Case Law, Germany, Infringement, Liability, Software

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Computer games are becoming more and more important, not only in everyday life but also in legal theory. The German Federal Supreme Court has now issued a decision on the online game World of Warcraft (decision of 06.10.2016, I ZR 25/15 – World of Warcraft I). In this decision, the Court addressed questions regarding the…

Case Law, CJEU, Distribution (right of), European Union, Exhaustion, Software

(Cirio Law Firm)/ /Leave a comment

Lawful acquirers of computer programs cannot resell back-up copies of the programs. This is according to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in case C-166/15 (Ranks/Vasiļevičs v. Finanšu un ekonomisko noziegumu izmeklēšanas prokoratūra/Microsoft Corp). The circumstances of the case were that two persons sold, on an online marketplace, used copies of computer…