The nexus between copyright law and software-enabled products has resurfaced at the forefront of the news in recent weeks. Prompted by a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting a “comprehensive review” of such an intersection because the “public is rightly seeking clarity,” the Copyright Office stated on Oct. 23, 2015 that it would initiate a public inquiry into these topics beginning in December 2015. Incidents that likely precipitate this concern amongst legislators and the public writ large include a filing at the Copyright Office by John Deere claiming that farmers that purchase its tractors do not thus own such tractors, but instead, because of the software utilized within the vehicle, retain merely an implied license to use it as long as it is otherwise operable.
In the litigation arena, the overlap between software and copyright remains as salient as ever, as exemplified by a $29 million jury award issued earlier in October in favor of a software licensor after it concluded the licensee had breached the license by copying the licensor’s manuals. See SAS Institute v. World Programming, No. 5:10-CV-00025 (E.D.N.C. Oct. 9, 2015).
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