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Supreme Court Lets Utilization Rights Stand

Posted by Zonk on from the no-discussion dept.

Moof writes "The United States Supreme Court refused to hear a case between a programmer and his former employer. What makes this news is the fact that the court is letting stand the rulings of the lower courts: Essentially if someone owns a physical copy of software, then they are allowed to modify the code as part of their regular use, no matter what other agreements are in place."

3 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How does he legally claim copyright? by Xentor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Maybe it was more of a consultant gig, where he sold them a black-box custom solution. They'd own the program, but he'd keep the code. They'd get it a little cheaper, but they'd have to hire him again whenever changes were needed...

    I've seen this tactic before... I wouldn't work that way.

    --
    "The amount of intelligence on this planet is a constant. The population is growing." -Cole's Axiom
  2. The big point - who owned the code by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 5, Informative

    See this for more details. This issue appears to have been whether the company actually owned the source. The courts said yes.

  3. Re:Fair use has been reinforced... by no_opinion · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wrong, that cannot be concluded from the ruling. If you read the opinion you'll see it is limited to software programs, not music or movies.