Re: Software application copyright opinion

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "GaryG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>"R. Kaushik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> 1. Can my previous employer claim it as copyright infringement?
>
>Since the new app is a re-write, I don't think you'll have any copyright
>issues.  You might at some point be required to prove this, but it sounds
>like you're OK there.

Really bad advice.  Just because your version is a rewrite doesn't mean
that it won't infringe the copyright in the original program that you
wrote.

First of all, because you wrote the original program as an employee and
as your work assignment, the author of that program as far as United
States copyright law is concerned is the employer and the copyright
initially vests with the employer.  You have no more rights under
copyright law in that program than I do.

See http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise10.html#secII.F.2.
for a discussion of "works made for hire."

Second, because you have had access to the original program, a program
that you write that is substantially similar could be an infringement
of the copyright of the original program, even if you no longer have
access to the original program and are not even thinking about it
when you write the new program.

There is little case law on the subject, but the decision of the Second
Circuit Court of Appeals in _ABKCP Music v. Harrisongs Music_ (see
http://digital-law-online.info/cases/221PQ490.htm) is instructive.

In that case, George Harrison was found to have infringed the copyright
of "He's So Fine," a song that he had heard years before, when he wrote
"My Sweet Lord."  There was no allegation that he was looking at "He's
So Fine" when he wrote "My Sweet Lord," or even that he consciously
remembered it.  But it was copyright infringement never the less.

See http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise27.html#secVI.C.
for a discussion of new software from old.