|
''Apple Computer Inc v Mackintosh Computers Ltd'' () 2 S.C.R. 209, is a Supreme Court of Canada case on copyright law regarding the copyrightability of software. The Court found that programs within ROM silicon chips (in this case, the Autostart ROM and Applesoft in Apple II+ systems) are protected under the Copyright Act, and that the conversion from the source code into object code was a reproduction that did not alter the copyright protection of the original work. ==Background== The defendant Mackintosh Computers Ltd. was a manufacturer of unlicensed Apple II+ clones that were capable of running software designed for Apple II+ computers. At issue in this case were the Autostart ROM and Applesoft programs embedded in the computer chips of Apple's computers. At trial, the defendants conceded that they copied the chips in question by burning the contents of Apple's ROM chips into their own EPROMs〔''Apple Computer Inc. v. Mackintosh Computers Ltd.'' () F.C.J. No. 278 at para 42.〕 They further conceded that software written in assembly code was copyrightable under the ''Copyright Act'' as literary works. However, the defendants argued that they had not infringed Apple's copyright in the assembly code because they had copied only the contents of the ROMs in question. The trial judge found that the software burned into Apple's ROMs were both a translation and reproduction of the assembly language source code, thus were protected by s. 3(1) of the ''Copyright Act''. The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. Two of the appellate judges held that the object code was a reproduction of the assembly code, while the third held that the object code could be considered either a translation or a reproduction, both protected by copyright. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Apple Computer Inc v Mackintosh Computers Ltd」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|