Figuring out the correct boundaries of software copyright protection is a difficult task. As several judges have put it, “applying copyright law to computer programs is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces do not quite fit.” Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit solved one piece of that puzzle, by approving a procedural framework for analyzing software copyright cases.
Previously, the Federal Circuit failed miserably at solving that puzzle. It had issued two horrible computer copyright decisions in the long-running Oracle v. Google saga. The first of those opinions held that the Java Application Program Interfaces (APIs) were eligible for copyright protection. The second reversed a jury’s determination that Google’s use of the Java APIs was a fair use. Fortunately, the Supreme Court stepped in and reversed the second opinion, finding fair use. Unfortunately, the Court’s fair use decision left open the first issue, whether APIs are copyright-eligible in the first place.
In a decision last week, the Federal Circuit finally got something right about copyright
In a decision last week, the Federal Circuit finally
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