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ARTICLE · 10 MAY 2005

Rights of Copy Owner not Necessarily Dependent on Formal Title

McDermott Will & Emery
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that the owner of a copy of a copyrighted software program can lawfully exercise the rights of §117(a) copyright "owner," even without formal title to the copy.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Farah Bhatti
Farah Bhatti
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that the owner of a copy of a copyrighted software program can lawfully exercise the rights of §117(a) copyright "owner," even without formal title to the copy. Krause v. TitleServ, Inc., No. 03-9303 (2d. Cir. Mar. 21, 2005) (Leval, J.).

Krause authored computer programs for TitleServ. When he worked for TitleServ, Krause left executable copies of the programs on its servers but "locked" the software to prevent TitleServ from modifying the source code. Without Krause’s permission, TitleServ "unlocked" the programs and modified the source code to fix bugs, to make changes to customer addresses and to keep the software functional. Krause sued for copyright infringement.

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