Table of contents for "Legal Protection of Digital Information,"
with hypertext links to the online version

Introduction to the online version

Foreword

Preface (to the printed version)

Chapter 1: An Overview of Copyright

I. History

I.A. The Statute of Anne

I.B. Federal Copyright

I.C. The Early Statutes

I.D. The Copyright Act of 1909

I.E. The Copyright Act of 1976

I.F. Later Legislation

II. Current Copyright Law

II.A. How Copyright Comes Into Being

II.A.1. Fixation of a Work

II.A.2. Types of Works

II.A.3. Originality Is Required

II.B. Compilations, Collections, And Derivative Works

II.B.1. Reproductions or Derivative Works?

II.B.2. Special Provisions

II.C. Copyright Notice And Registration

II.C.1. Form of the Notice

II.C.2. Registration of Copyright

II.D. Federal Government Works

II.D.1. Exemption from Copyright

II.D.2. Government Contract Works

II.E. Ideas Versus Expression

II.E.1. Two Key Supreme Court Cases

II.E.2. Idea-Expression Merger and Scènes À Faire

II.F. Copyright Ownership

II.F.1. Joint Works

II.F.2. Works Made For Hire

II.F.3. Collective Works

II.G. Copyright Duration

II.G.1. Why So Long?

II.H. Rights In Copyright

II.H.1. Reproduction

II.H.2. Derivative Works

II.H.3. Public Distribution and First Sale

II.H.4. Public Performance or Display

II.H.5. Rights In Different Types of Works

II.H.6. Assignments and Licensing

II.I. Fair Use

II.I.1. Consider All Factors

II.I.2. Fair Use as a Safety Valve

II.J. Indirect Infringement

II.J.1. Contributory Infringement

II.J.2. Vicarious Infringement

II.K. Misuse Of Copyright

II.L. Remedies For Copyright Infringement

II.L.1. Time Limits For Filing Suit

II.L.2. Damages

II.L.3. Attorney Fees and Costs

II.L.4. Criminal Infringement

Chapter 2: Copyright of Computer Programs

I. The History Of Software Copyright

I.A. Early “Software”: The Piano Roll

I.B. The First Software Copyrights

I.C. Software Under the 1976 Act

I.D. The CONTU Recommendations

I.E. Congressional Action

I.E.1. Adoption of the CONTU Recommendations, with an Unexplained Change

I.E.2. The 1990 Software Rental Prohibition

I.E.3. The 1998 Addition to Section 117

II. The Scope Of Software Copyright

II.A. Copyrights or Patents?

II.B. Object Code

II.B.1. Williams Electronics v. Artic International

II.B.2. Apple v. Franklin

II.C. RAM Copies

II.C.1. MAI v. Peak: Fixed Reproductions

II.C.2. A Better Way to Look at RAM Copies

II.D. Summary

III. Beyond Mere Copying of a Computer Program

III.A. Structure, Sequence, and Organization

III.A.1. The Third Circuit’s Whelan Decision

III.A.2. Criticism Of Whelan

III.B. Abstraction, Filtration, Comparison

III.B.1. The Second Circuit’s Altai Decision

III.B.2. The Tenth Circuit’s Elaboration On Altai

III.B.3. Filtration

III.B.3.a. Efficiency

III.B.3.b. External Factors

III.B.3.c. Material in the Public Domain

III.B.3.d. Facts

III.B.4. Comparison

III.C. Methods of Operation

III.C.1. The Paperback Decision

III.C.2. Borland at the District Court

III.C.3. Borland at the First Circuit

III.C.4. Tenth Circuit Criticism of Borland

IV. Applying The AFC Test

IV.A. A Suggested Approach

IV.B. A Judge’s Comments on the Suggested Approach

V. Reverse Engineering Of Software

V.A. The Federal Circuit’s Atari Decision

V.B. The Ninth Circuit’s Sega Decision

V.B.1. The First Fair Use Factor

V.B.2. The Second Fair Use Factor

V.B.3. The Third and Fourth Fair Use Factors

V.B.4. Summarizing The Four Factors

V.C. Revising Sega in Sony v. Connectix

VI. Other Software Copyright Issues

VI.A. Source Code and Derivative Works

VI.B. Source Code and Object Code

VI.C. Source Code and Displays

VI.D. New Software from Old

VI.D.1. Using a Clean Room

VI.D.2. Piecewise Reimplementation

VI.D.3. Section 117 Adaptations

VI.D.4. Derivative Works and Compilations

VII. Summary

Chapter 3: Copyright of Digital Information

I. Why Digital Works are Different

I.A. The Ease of Copying and Distributing Digital Works

I.B. Copyright Laws are a Bad Fit

I.B.1. File Sharing

I.B.1.a. The Public Distribution Right

I.B.1.b. The Reproduction Right

I.B.1.c. The Adaptation Right

I.B.1.d. The Public Performance Rights

I.B.1.e. The Public Display Right

I.B.1.f. What Can Be Done

I.B.2. Intermediate Copies

I.B.2.a. A New Right to Control Access and Use?

I.B.2.b. Transitory Duration?

I.B.2.c. Fair Use?

I.B.2.d. What Can Be Done

II. Protecting Digital Information

II.A. The Audio Home Recording Act

II.B. The White Paper

II.C. Digital Sound Recordings

II.C.1. The New Exclusive Right

II.C.2. Exceptions

II.C.3. Webcasting

III. What Not to Protect

III.A. The Court Decisions

III.A.1. Netcom

III.A.2. When a Service Provider Will Be Liable

III.B. Congress Codifies the Decisions

III.B.1. The Four Safe Harbors

III.B.2. Benefits of Being in the Safe Harbor

III.B.3. Notice-and-Takedown Procedures

III.B.3.a. Notice

III.B.3.b. Takedown

III.B.3.c. Put-back

III.B.4. Mere Conduits for Others’ Communications

III.B.5. Service Provider Caching

III.B.6. Stored User Information

III.B.7. Directories and Links

III.B.8. Other Safe Harbor Requirements

III.B.9. Special Rules for Schools

IV. Protection Through Technology

IV.A. Why Technology, Why Laws?

IV.B. Past Technological Protections

IV.C. The White Paper

IV.D. The WIPO Copyright Treaty

IV.E. Technological Protections and the DMCA

IV.E.1. The Trafficking Provisions

IV.E.2. Accessing Through Circumvention

IV.E.3. Distinction From Copyright

IV.E.4. Fair Use

IV.E.5. What Anticircumvention Isn’t

IV.E.6. Rights Management Information

IV.E.7. Permitted Circumventions

IV.E.7.a. Law Enforcement, Content Filters, and Privacy

IV.E.7.b. Libraries and Educational Institutions

IV.E.7.c. Reverse Engineering

IV.E.7.d. Encryption Research

IV.E.7.e. Code as Speech

IV.E.7.f. Security Testing

Chapter 4: An Overview of Patents

I. History

I.A. The Patent Act of 1790

I.B. The Patent Act of 1793

I.C. The Patent Act of 1836

I.D. Later Recodifications

II. Why Patents?

III. What Can Be Patented

III.A. Basic Requirements

III.B. Exceptions To The Broad Classes

III.B.1. Laws of Nature

III.B.2. Abstract Ideas

III.B.3. Mental Processes

III.B.4. Printed Matter

III.B.5. Computer Software

III.B.6. Methods of Doing Business

IV. Getting A Utility Patent

IV.A. The Description

IV.B. Claims

IV.B.1. When a Claim “Reads On” Something

IV.B.2. The Steps of a Method

IV.B.3. The Preamble

IV.B.4. Dependent and Independent Claims

IV.B.5. Other Claim Forms

IV.B.6. Means Plus Function Elements

V. Novelty

V.A. Prior Art

V.B. Inventorship

V.C. Statutory Bars

V.D. Provisional Applications

V.E. Interferences

VI. Anticipation And Obviousness

VI.A. Secondary Considerations

VI.B. Rejection of a Claim

VII. Nature Of A Patent

VII.A. Patent Term

VII.B. Presumption of Validity

VIII. Infringement

VIII.A. Nonliteral Infringement

VIII.B. Patent Misuse

VIII.C. Marking

VIII.C.1.  “Patent Pending”

VIII.D. Penalties for Infringement

VIII.D.1. Damages Recoverable

VIII.D.2. Provisional Rights

IX. What To Do If You Are Told You Are Infringing a Patent

IX.A. Reviewing the Claims

IX.B. Three Choices

IX.C. Reexamination

Chapter 5: Software-Based Inventions

I. Reluctance at the Beginning

I.A. Trying to Patent a Computer Algorithm

I.B. The Supreme Court’s Benson Decision

I.C. Trying to Make Sense of Benson

I.D. The Supreme Court’s Flook Decision

I.E. Chakrabarty’s Bacteria

I.F. Diehr’s Rubber Molding

II. Trying To Draw the Line

II.A. After Diehr

II.B. A New Clarity: The Alappat Decision

II.C. After Alappat

II.D. The Patent Office’s Guidelines

III. Business Methods and State Street Bank

IV. Other Ways of Claiming

V. Printed Matter and Computer Software

V.A. Beauregard’s Floppy Disks

V.B. Patent Office Guidelines: Stored Information

V.C. The Effect on Copyright

V.D. Beyond Beauregard

VI. Applying for a Software Patent