Wall Data Inc. v. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dep't involved a dispute between the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and a software company, Wall Data. The Department bought 3,663 software licenses from Wall Data, but installed the software onto 6,007 computers. Sounds like a pretty obvious case of copyright infringement, doesn't it?
It would've been an easy case, if the Sheriff's Department hadn't gotten cute. You see, although it installed the software onto 6,007 computers, it configured the computers such that the total number of workstations able to access the software did not exceed the total number of licenses purchased by the Sheriff's Department. Still copyright infringement?
A federal jury thought so. The Ninth Circuit agreed.
The court addressed a number of issues with which corporate counsel should be familiar. The issues include:
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whether the Sheriff Department's configuration constituted fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107 because the number of "useable" copies of the software did not exceed the number of licenses purchased from Wall Data;
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whether the Sheriff Department was entitled to an "essential step" defense under 17 U.S.C. § 117(a)(1) because the hard drive imaging process that was used to install the software was a necessary step of installation; and
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whether Wall Data, as the prevailing party, was entitled to attorneys' fees and costs.
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