Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp

In the Apple
Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. copyright infringement case, Apple
Computer, Inc., now Apple Inc., decided to name Franklin Computer Corporation in
a lawsuit in regards to the recent release of an operating system the company
had been distributing. Apple Computer, Inc. said that there was a direct
parallel to the operating system that the company itself had developed and
released and the new, Ace 100, by the Franklin Computer
Corporation.

Apple
Computer, Inc. filed the copyright infringement case at the United States
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The filing of
Apple Computer, Inc. on May 12, 1982, marked the date of the first copyright
infringement case to be litigated on a matter involving an operating system in
a high court.

Apple Computer, Inc. had released the operating
system, Apple II, in 1977 at the West Coast Computer
Faire. It was designed by engineer and co-founder of the company, Steve
Wozniak, along with other members of the team. Apple II proceeded Apple I, a personal
computer, which was the company’s first product release. The basis of the
copyright infringement case was the claim of Apple Computer, Inc., which stated
that Franklin Computer Corporation, a consumer electronics manufacturer, had
been distributing a replica of Apple II in their release of the Ace 100 in
1982.

One of the
largest arguments by Apple Computer, Inc. in the copyright infringement case
against Franklin Computer Corporation was that the operating system, Ace 100, had included some of the same mathematical logic and language
for the ROM as Apple II. Another major
citation on the basis of the copyright infringement case against Franklin
Computer Corporation was that Ace 100 featured a similar
motherboard scheme to that of Apple II.

The position of Franklin Computer Corporation in
the copyright infringement case was that, although the company had used many of
the concepts from Apple II in their creation of the Ace 100, it would
not have been quite as constructive or effective for the company to attempt at
creating a brand new operating system. The Franklin Computer Corporation
stated that the product would not have the capacity to achieve compatibility if
starting completely from scratch.

The company
went on to state that some components of the Apple II operating system were not copyrighted, so therefore they took on
the implication that they could be copied. The Franklin Computer
Corporation added to their defense in the copyright infringement case by
stating that they were in the midst of producing software that would be
completely independent.

The United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania declared the copyright infringement case of Apple
Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. in favor of Franklin Computer
Corporation. Dissatisfied with the verdict, Apple Computer, Inc. filed
for an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit. By mid-1983, and just three business days after the District Court
had ruled in the favor of Franklin Computer Corp., the Federal court issued a
verdict in the copyright infringement case for Apple Computer, Inc.

The stated basis
for the ruling was that a program is protected under copyright law even if it
is written in a combination of print and object code. The ruling had important
implications for the enforcement of copyright on computer programs.

Baker v. Selden

Baker v. Selden (101 U.S. 99)
is one of the earliest and most important of all copyright infringement cases. It is heavily cited in
explaining the idea-expression divide, a concept that outlines the underlying
concepts of copyright laws. It explains that U.S. copyright laws are set into
place to protect the expression of an idea rather than the idea itself. The
case, which took place in 1879, concluded that the exclusive rights to what is
known as “useful art” which may be written in a book are only
protected under U.S. intellectual property law through a patent. The
description itself contained in the book would be protected under copyright.

Background

A man by the name of Charles Selden obtained a
copyright for a book he wrote which was intended to portray an improved system
of bookkeeping entitled Bookkeeping Simplified. The book, although containing
only 650 words, contained mostly bookkeeping forms. There were also several
examples outlined in addition to an introduction.

Selden
created several additional books, which were arguably just new revisions to the
same original book. Selden was unsuccessful in selling his books, even after
attempting to sell them to several counties, as well as the United States
Department of Treasury. Before Selden’s death, he assigned his interest, which
was returned to his wife.

W.C.M Baker produced a book in 1867 which
described a very similar system to Selden’s system of bookkeeping. Baker was
able to sell the book to 40 counties in under five years. It was not long
before Selden’s widow, Elizabeth, discovered Baker’s success with Selden’s
similar bookkeeping techniques. She hired an attorney and took legal action
against Baker in 1872 and sued him for copyright infringement.

The Trial and Appeal

The court decided that Baker’s books contained
information and material which was too similar not to be liable for copyright
infringement. As a result, the court ordered a permanent injunction which
prevented Baker from further publication or sale of his book. Baker and his
legal team immediately filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United
States, which claimed that Selden’s work is not valid copyright subject matter.

The appeal process closely
examined the difference between patent law and copyright law. It
was found by the Court that the idea contained within a book is not enforced
through copyright law, but rather through patent law. Only the description or
expression of an idea is protected by a copyright. Justice Joseph P. Bradley
wrote of the case, “The copyright of a book on bookkeeping cannot secure
the exclusive right to make, sell, and use account books prepared upon the plan
set forth in such a book.” Baker v. Selden has been written into the U.S.
Code §102(b) of the Copyright Act.

Importance of Knowing The Famous Cases of Copyright Law

Famous copyright lawsuits over the years have played a large part in how copyright law is shaped today in the United States. The decisions made in early court cases have helped to distinguish between copyrights and patents, pinpointing a clear definition for both aspects of United States Intellectual Property Law. In addition, with the emergence of digital technology came new amendments in copyright laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Important court decisions have helped to firmly establish the laws outlined in this Act, becoming a model for future court disputes. For example, one of the more famous copyright cases, Viacom vs. Youtube, Google Inc., showed how important it is for copyright laws to keep up with the fast paced world of technology, while firmly placing responsibility into the hands of companies who manage websites with user-controlled content. Baker v. Selden was an early case that helped mold copyright law by providing a clear difference between copyright material and patentable material.

The case between A&M Records (along with more than a dozen other record companies) vs. Napster was the first time file sharing was examined under U.S. copyright law. It asked the question: is a company responsible for the illegal actions of other people if their program gives users the tools to perform such illegal activities?

Napster was a program that allows users to share music files in the form of MP3s, a music format relatively new at the time, which compressed music into a small size without a substantial drop in audio quality. As MP3 awareness and popularity rose steadily, so did Napster, a tool that gave users the ability to perform illegal file swapping, but at the same time, could be used legally as well.

This was Napster’s main argument, believing that it is not responsible for how its program is used by its customers. This case was the beginning of a long copyright battle in the record industry, fronted by the Recording Industry Association of America, which is still going on today.

Rogers v. Koons: This case showed that in order for a parody to be legal, it must be a commentary on the original artwork itself and cannot be a reproduction with another message entirely.

One of the earliest and most famous copyright disputes occurred in the case of Baker v. Selden. This case helped to clearly outline what material is protected under copyright law. Although the work that Baker created was similar to Selden’s original work, it was decided that Baker had not violated copyright law.

This is because copyrights only protect expressions of ideas, while the ideas themselves are only protected when one obtains a patent. This distinction was incorporated into the U.S. Copyright Act, which was inspired by the Baker v. Selden case.

MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. was a copyright infringement case that held remarkable similarities to the famous Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios case, which ruled that the makers of VCR technology cannot be held liable for any illegal copying done by its users. In the same sense, Grokster was argued to be held liable for file sharing technology which users can take advantage of to download copyrighted material such as music and movies.

Grokster had already won two prior victories in court, the latest in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in 2003, where the Sony v. Universal case was cited in the decision. Ultimately, the decision found that Grokster should be held liable for copyright infringement which takes place using the technology it has available on the Internet.

There was argument, however, about how similar this case was with the Sony v. Universal case. It was found that the case had no influence on the court’s final decision. This case led to other peer-to-peer file sharing networks to close down in fear of a lawsuit, while others took more substantial measures to ensure that its users do not use their program for copyright infringement.

IO Group v. Veoh Networks

IO Group, Inc. v. Veoh Networks, Inc. (586 F. Supp. 2d 1132) was a legal case that took place in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California involving Veoh, a company that offers its users internet television for free, and IO Group, producer of adult entertainment. The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of Veoh Networks because the company was protected under the guidelines of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 17 U.S.C. § 512. This copyright infringement case is similar to the famous Viacom vs. Youtube, Google Inc. case.

Like YouTube, Veoh offers a service allowing anyone of its users to upload videos to the website. Veoh understands that users may take advantage of the service to upload content that has been copyrighted, so they established a firm Terms of Use with the intent of protecting itself and its users from legal trouble.

The Terms of Use explained that users are responsible for the content in which they upload and Veoh does not permit copyright infringement of any kind.

They also stated that any account which uploads copyrighted material may be subject to termination through Veoh’s discretion. Veoh’s strict policies are enforced through a system of account termination when an infringing work is uploaded to their servers. If this happens, a user’s account is terminated and their e-mail address is blocked so a new Veoh account cannot be created by that user.

The copyright infringement case emerged in a lawsuit filed by IO Group on June 23, 2006, after it noticed that several of its copyrighted work was available on Veoh’s website. Instead of sending a cease and desist letter, IO Group filed the lawsuit as the first step. The lawsuit claimed Copyright Infringement, Contributory Copyright Infringement, and Vicarious Copyright Infringement. Following the legal action, Veoh had decided not to include adult content on its website.

Under the DMCA, to be within the legal “Safe Harbors” Veoh and other similar companies must meet the following guidelines:

*The company must offer a service provider.

*It must create and enforce a policy which terminates the accounts of repeated infringers and blocks them from future access.

*It must accommodate technical measures that copyright owners have set in place to protect their work.

IO Group did not argue in court that Veoh failed to comply with the above guidelines. Instead, IO chose to accuse Veoh of having an infringement policy which was effective in preventing copyrighted material from being made available online illegally. Veoh, however, was able to prove that they had an adequate system to notify users of infringement policies, as well as establishing a proper system of digital fingerprinting of files. They also responded to all copyright notices they received by taking down the violating videos immediately and the Court agreed that copyright infringement protocol was handled correctly.

IO Group was still not convinced and claimed that Veoh should be required to take further action against repeated infringers by not only blocking e-mail addresses, but names and IP addresses as well. This would prevent users from signing up with different e-mail accounts. The Court disagreed and noted that Veoh did procedures under the guidelines of the DMCA, which does not require a policy system to be perfect, but rather “reasonable”.

Veoh was also proven to pass the “Red Flag Test”, a test that states that if a company does not take action against infringement while having knowledge of it, they should have their “Safe Harbor” status repealed. In addition, many of the video clips claimed by IO Group did not have proper copyright notices on them. The copyright infringement case ended up with a grant of Veoh’s motion for a summary judgment and it was dismissed.