i.p. news

      Large corporation SAS was suing smaller UK Worldwide Programming Ltd. for alleged copyright infringement in the High Court. SAS alleged that WPL had breached its license relating to SAS Learning Edition in order to test and create its own derivative software. SAS was seeking amages and an injunction.
    
     The High Court did not find for SAS, holding that WPL was free to copy the functions of a piece of software, as long as it does not copy the source code. This is in clear line with past software copyright cases and shows the limited and narrow protection offered to software products by copyright. 
    
     Infringement of copyright was however found on the manuals which WPL has to withdraw.
    
     The case will now be referred to the ECJ to ensure that British judge's decision is in line with the Software Directive.
    
     Surprisingly both parties claim victory in this case...!
    
     Source: the Register