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Second Circuit Review: Copyright Law: When Customer 'Owns' Copy of Computer Program
April 27, 2005 Full PDF
The April 27 New York Law Journal "Second Circuit Review" features an article written by Martin Flumenbaum and Brad Karp, "Copyright Law: When Customer 'Owns' Copy of Computer Program." The article focuses on the decision in Krause v. Titleserv, Inc. in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's claims for software copyright infringement. The court clarified when a customer "owns" a copy of a computer program, as opposed to licensing it. Marty and Brad indicate that the decision has important implications for software licensing. Sophisticated purchasers/licensees may construct their contracts to maximize their rights to modify and update the purchased software, while licensors will take the opposite position. They conclude that the decision is unlikely to apply to mass-market software such as Windows or Photoshop since they are nearly always sold with an End User License Agreement, restricting the end user's rights to reverse engineer or modify the software. The editor notes that Drew Harris assisted in the preparation of this article.