Loading Program on All Computers Infringes Copyright

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department was out of step when it loaded the RUMBA program into all of its 6,000 computers when it had a license for only half that number, making it liable for copyright infringement.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s finding and rejected claims by the LASD that loading the program onto the computers was both fair use and an essential step in operating the computer program. As a result, the loading of the program on all the computers was copyright infringement.

LASD had acquired 3,663 licenses for the RUMBA program. The department started to load the program one by one onto its computers, but after loading 75 computers, the LASD decided it would be easier to use a master hard drive to finish loading the program, thereby saving time. In all, the program was installed on 6,007 computers at the Sheriff’s Department.

LASD argued that it did not exceed the authorized number of licenses because in order to operate the program, a person needed an access code. Thus, argued LASD, its installation on all the computers was within the license and a fair use.

The appellate court did not agree, finding that the license clearly restricted the Sheriff’s Department from using the software in multiple computer or multiple user arrangements. The court further did not believe LASD’s contention that it would not have purchased additional licenses had it known its configuration went beyond the licenses. “We are not persuaded,” the court wrote. “The Sheriff’s Department bought a few licenses and found a way to install the program onto all of its computers without paying the fee required for each installation. The Sheriff’s Department could have bargained for the flexibility it desired, but it did not do so.”

The court also rejected the contention that installing the program on all of the Department’s computers was an “essential step” in the operation of the program. The court said the purpose of the “essential step” exception to copyright infringement is to ensure “that a software user does not infringe when the user ‘copies’ the software from the computer’s permanent storage (the hard drive, for example) onto its active memory (the random access memory, for example).”

The court said the evidence “demonstrates that the Sheriff’s Department’s decision to copy the RUMBA software products was not an essential step, but rather a matter of convenience. It copied the software onto 75 computers without the aid of hard drive imaging, and switched to the hard drive imaging because its deadline in opening Twin Towers loomed large, not because the manual installation had become more difficult.”

Wall Data, Inc. v. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Ninth Cir. No. 03-56559, May 17, 2006.