SAS Institute lawsuit with World Programming: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:16, 19 May 2012

Revision as of 16:20, 15 June 2012

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The [[European Court of Justice|EU Court of Justice]] ruled that copyright protection does not extend to the software functionality, the programming language used and the format of the data files used by the program. It stated that there is no copyright infringement when a company which does not have access to the source code of a program studies, observes and tests that program to create another program with the same functionality.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-02/copyright-can-t-block-software-reverse-engineering-court.html | title = Copyright Can't Block Software Reverse Engineering: Court | author = Aoife White | publisher = Bloomberg | date = 2012-05-02 | accessdate = 2012-05-02 }}</ref>

== High Court of England & Wales ==

== Decision ==

The [[High Court of England and Wales]] made the following observations.<ref>[http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2010/1829.html#para332 Judgement]</ref>

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First, the decision confirms what WPL has always admitted, namely that it has used the SAS Manuals to emulate functionality of the SAS System in WPS. Secondly, it shows that to some extent WPL has reproduced aspects of the SAS Manuals going beyond that which was strictly necessary in order for WPS to emulate the functions of the SAS System. What it does not show is reproduction of the SAS source code by WPS going beyond the reproduction of its functionality. WPL's manual writers did not directly copy from the SAS Manuals in the sense of having one of the SAS Manuals open in front of them when writing the WPS Manual and intentionally either transcribing or paraphrasing the wording. A considerable degree of similarity in both content and language between the SAS Manual entries and the WPS Manual entries is to be expected given that they are describing identical functionality. The degree of resemblance in the language goes beyond that which is attributable to describing identical functionality.

== Court of Justice of the European Union reference ==

== Further appeal ==

InThe MayHigh 2012,Court referred several questions of the interpretation of the Software Directive and the Copyright Directive to the Court of Justice of the European Union, under the [[preliminary ruling]] procedure. Advocate-General Yves Bot gave his Opinion on 29 November 2011.<ref>[http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d0f130de82a77d2247f54418827c974b27e0ac40.e34KaxiLc3eQc40LaxqMbN4NchmOe0?docid=115484&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&cid=14287 ECIS Judgement]</ref> The full judgement was handed down by the European Court of Justice on 2nd May 2012.<ref>[http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=122362&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=972439 JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Grand Chamber)]</ref> It largely adopted the advocateAdvocate-generalGeneral's opinionOpinion, holding that neither the functionality of a computer program nor the programming language and the format of data files used in a computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions are covered by copyright.<ref>{{cite news | title=The functionality of a computer program and the programming language cannot be protected by copyright | work=Press release | date=May 2, 2012 | agency=Court of Justice of the European Union | accessdate=May 07, 2012}}</ref>

The above judgement was appealed to European Court of Justice. Advocate-General Yves Bot of the European Court of Justice handed down his opinion in SAS Institute Inc. v World Programming Limited on 29 November 2011.

The Court concluded that:

The verdict conclusion stated:<ref>[http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d0f130de82a77d2247f54418827c974b27e0ac40.e34KaxiLc3eQc40LaxqMbN4NchmOe0?docid=115484&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&cid=14287 ECIS Judgement]</ref>

:1. Article 1(2) of Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs is tomust be interpreted as meaning that neither the functionalitiesfunctionality of a computer program andnor the programming language areand notthe eligibleformat of data files used in a computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions constitute a form of expression of that program and, as such, forare not protected by copyright protectionin computer programs for the purposes of that directive.

:108. The question now is whether, by including in the WPL Manual and the WPL System certain elements contained in the SAS Manuals, WPL infringed the copyright held by SAS institute in the latter manuals.

:109. As we saw in point 43 of this Opinion, copyright is guided by the principle that copyright protection extends to expressions and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such.

:2. Article 5(3) of Directive 91/250 must be interpreted as meaning that a person who has obtained a copy of a computer program under a licence is entitled, without the authorisation of the owner of the copyright, to observe, study or test the functioning of that program so as to determine the ideas and principles which underlie any element of the program, in the case where that person carries out acts covered by that licence and acts of loading and running necessary for the use of the computer program, and on condition that that person does not infringe the exclusive rights of the owner of the copyright in that program.

:110. In this case, the referring court states that WPL has, in particular, taken the keywords, syntax, commands and combinations of commands, options, defaults and iterations from the SAS Manuals in order to reproduce them in its program, as well as in the WPL manual.

:3. Article 2(a) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society must be interpreted as meaning that the reproduction, in a computer program or a user manual for that program, of certain elements described in the user manual for another computer program protected by copyright is capable of constituting an infringement of the copyright in the latter manual if – this being a matter for the national court to ascertain – that reproduction constitutes the expression of the intellectual creation of the author of the user manual for the computer program protected by copyright.

:111. In my opinion, these elements, as such, do not qualify for the protection conferred by copyright.

The case will now return to the High Court for it to rule on how the ECJ judgment should apply to the particular facts of this case.

:Article 1(2) of Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs is to be interpreted as meaning that the functionalities of a computer program and the programming language are not eligible, as such, for copyright protection.

The full judgement is available.<ref>[http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d0f130de82a77d2247f54418827c974b27e0ac40.e34KaxiLc3eQc40LaxqMbN4NchmOe0?docid=115484&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&cid=14287 ECIS Judgement on the Case]</ref>

In May 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union largely adopted the advocate-general's opinion, holding that neither the functionality of a computer program nor the programming language and the format of data files used in a computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions are covered by copyright.<ref>{{cite news | title=The functionality of a computer program and the programming language cannot be protected by copyright | work=Press release | date=May 2, 2012 | agency=Court of Justice of the European Union | accessdate=May 07, 2012}}</ref>

== Additional US Lawsuit==

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== External links ==

* [http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2010/1829.html The fullinitial judgementHigh Court Judgment]

* [http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=122362&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=972439 The ECJ Judgment]

* [http://www.ecis.eu/2011/12/ecis-symposium-1-december-2011-bibliotheque-solvay-video-audio-presentations-and-related-materials/ ECIS Symposium on the Case]

* ''SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd.'', no. C‑406/10, Court of Justice of the European Union, [http://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-406/10 judgment and opinion]; May 2, 2012; accessed May 7, 2012.

[[Category:Copyright case law]]