Limiting Software Licenses A win for software users: Krause v. Titleserv, Inc. (pdf), decided by the Second Circuit late last month, which contains a long and thoughtful analysis of Section 117 of the Copyright Act by Judge Leval. Section 117 grants certain rights to copy software to the �owner� of a particular copy, a phrasing that software companies have long seized on to justify many of the more onerous provisions of mass market software licenses. If a software user merely �licenses� the software, then (allegedly) the rights of �owners� don�t apply. Judge Leval decisively and rightly rejects the idea that Section 117 can be bypassed by the software developer�s unilateral characterization of the transaction as a �license.� Importantly, the court goes on to hold that the defendant in the case could lawfully exercise the rights of a Section 117 �owner� even though it did not possess formal title to its copy of the program.
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