Case Headnote:
Geac v. Craig Erickson Systems
copyright 1997 Donald M. Cameron , Aird & Berlis
Contents
Summary
A licensee of computer software was prevented from having a third party maintainer export the licensee's data from data files, the design for which was owned by the licensor.
The Facts
GEAC sued Craig Erickson Systems Inc. ("CES") for copyright infringement and inducing breach of a software licensing agreement by CES maintaining and supporting software owned by GEAC.
Licensees of a program owned by Geac called the J&E Secondary modules (an accounting program for the construction industry) wanted to transfer their data into a format compatible with Procon, a new program offered by CES, a competitor of Geac. CES was licensed to use a related product, the J&E Primary module, but did not have a licence for the Secondary modules. Madam Justice Lang had ordered Craig Erickson Systems Inc. not to use or support the Secondary module software, including the program documents, which were defined by her order to include file layouts in particular.
CES employees looked at the Secondary module data files on a licensee's computer to see where the customer's pertinent data was located in order to extract that data and put it into the Procon data files. Geac objected to the electronic conversion performed by CES asserting that CES was "using" the Secondary module software as defined by Madam Justice Lang in her order, and brought contempt of court proceedings against CES.
The Decision
According to Mr. Justice Ferrier, who heard the contempt application, looking at a data file to see how the data is organised constituted use of the software (as defined in the order) which was used to make the data file. CES was in contempt for doings such acts. No fine was imposed but CES had to pay GEAC's legal costs.
The Court ruled that, in the circumstances of that case, data files were part of the software. By examining data files to learn their structure, the software was being used. The licensees of the software were not permitted to show the "software" to anyone else under the terms of the licence agreement. Therefore, the licensees of the accounting software could not have their new supplier, Craig Erickson Systems Inc. ("CES"), export the licensee's data electronically using a program CES developed after looking at the data files on the licensee's computer.
His logic was as follows. File layout documents are created by programmers developing the computer program so that the portion of the program they write can properly use the data files. Mr. Justice Ferrier understood that by saying that "software" included the file layout documents, Madam Justice Lang was using the term software not in the way programmers often use it (to mean the computer program itself) but rather in a broad sense, to include all aspects of a computer system (other than hardware) that allows hardware to work. If the file layout documents were part of software, then so was the information contained in the file layout documents. This information described the file structure (the way the data is organised in the data files). Mr. Justice Ferrier said that this information was also found in the data files themselves. Looking at the data files to see how the licensee's data was stored made use of information about the file structure and therefore indirectly used the information which originated in the file layout document and hence "used" the software. CES was doing indirectly what it was prohibited from doing directly and accordingly had breached Madam Justice Lang's order.
The case settled before going to appeal.
Comments
What are the implications for business? If you want access to your data, be sure you have not contracted with someone else regarding their data so as to restrict your access to your data.
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