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.