This article argues that competition and innovation in the software industry in the EU will be seriously undermined if the Court of Justice of the European Union in SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd. holds that copyright protection for computer programs extends to the functional...

Copyright law is under considerable stress these days, particularly due to technological advances and the growth of global networks. In recognition of these stresses, the Copyright Principles Project (CPP) was formed to consider whether and what possible improvements could be made to existing...

Courts have struggled for decades to develop a test for judging infringement claims in software copyright cases that distinguishes between program expression that copyright law protects and program functionality for which copyright protection is unavailable. The case law thus far has adopted...

The Copyright Act of 1976 confers on authors an exclusive right to prepare derivative works. It defines this term as “a work based upon one or more preexisting works,” giving nine examples to illustrate the concept and ending with “or any other form in which a work may be recast,...

The Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay v. MercExchange seemingly heralded a major change in not only patent law but also copyright law. The Court ruled that injunctions for patent infringement should no longer be granted automatically; instead, plaintiffs must establish the need for...