Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Changing a copyrighted program. That's what Titleserv did to a program created by a former employee who left without signing over his copyrights. He told Titleserv that it could only use the program as is, but that did not stop Titleserv, since modifications were required to make the programs work. The employee sued for breach of copyright, and Titleserv moved for summary judgment, which was granted. On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed, holding that, under 17 U.S.C. 117, it was entitled to adapt the programs because it was an owner of the programs, the copy was created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and the program was ued in no other way. The decision in Krause v. Titleserv, Inc. can be found here.

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