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ComputerFOCUS News for HP OEMs and Independent Software Vendors February 1984 HEWLETT International PACKARD """"E7FOCU@ Management Topics HP 9000Series 200 Applecourt Overturned: Object-Coded Systems Introducing HPL 2.1 . 15 Software Copyrightable . 3 New Document Formatter for HP 9000 Series 200 Users . 15 Marketing HP 9000 Series 200 HP-UX Hardware Runs HP Technical OEM Conference Scheduled . 5 BASIC, Pascal, and Applications . 15 International HP Computer Users Meeting Set for February . 5 Terminals 180 Customers Attend the First German Changes to HP 264X Terminals . 16 Hewlett-Packard and Partners Conference . 5 Your Next Best Friend. the "Computer Peripherals Users Catalog" . 7 New Roll-feed Drafting Plotter Plus Enhancements and Price Reductions on Personal Computers Current Drafting Plotters . 17 Information Transfer Between the HP-41 Expanded Capabilities Package for the Calculator and HP Series 80 Personal Computers 9 New HP 2563A . 18 Current Revisions of HP Series 80 Software . 9 Bar Codes for the HP 2563A . 18 HP-85 Product Offering Simplified . 10 The HP 2563A Versus the Printronix P-300 . 18 Additional System Support for HP 2687A andHP2688A .......................... HP 1000 Series l9 a New 1600 bpi Mag Tape Option for Micro/1000 3%" Microfloppy and Mini Winchesters on Systems ............................... 11 the HP 9845BlC . 19 New Peripherals for the HP 1000 . 11 HP 9130A Obsolete . 19 HP 3000Series HP Series 68 110 Bay Has Been Released . 1 2 New Laser Printers Supported on HP 3000 . 12 Get the Power of HP Series 48 with ADCC to ATP Upgrade . 13 MPE-VIP Boosts HP 3000 Performance . 14 DSNIMTS Spooled Printer Support Update . 14 On the Cover: Now HP offers a complete family of large format drafting plotters. The new HP 7586B provides con- tinuous roll-feed and long-axis plotting capabilities. The HP 7580B17585B have exciting firmware en- hancements and new lower prices. See article begin- ning on page 17. Computer Focus - International 2 February 1981 Management Topics Applecourt Overturned: ROMs and operating systems were also considered by the trial court. Since copyright protects the expression Object-Coded Systems but not the use of a writing, the attack here had Software Copyrightable focused on their utilitarian nature. As for ROMs, the court said "it may be more apt to describe an encoded In its second decision about what are certainly crucial ROM as a pictorial three-dimensional object than as a legal issues for the computer industry, the Third Cir- literary work." Operating systems were found to be cuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court deci- "an essential element of the machine" and outside the sion in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer scope of copyright. Corporation. The holdings announced on August 30, 1983, by Judge Sloviter again faced squarely several Nevertheless, three days later, on August 2, 1982, important questions not covered in the Copyright Act even before news of the first Apple decision reached of 1976 or its 1980 amendment. To appreciate the most of the industry, the appellate court for that same place of this case in an emerging line of decisions district, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, reached strengthening computer program copyright protec- essentially an opposite conclusion. The human tion, a review is worthwhile. intelligibility theory of copyrightability, long at the root of much uncertainty, was firmly rejected. The Apple case grew out of Franklin's appropriation of 14 of Apple's operating system programs, some of The outcome in Williams Electronics, Inc. v. Artic which were written to ROMs and others of which International, Inc., set the stage for the reversal in Apple. In Williams, Judge Sloviter concluded that as a were normally distributed on floppy disks. All of these matter of law, ROM modules of the defendant's video programs had been copied. Code in one contained the programmer's name, another the word "Applesoft." game "Defense Command," which were undisputed knockoffs of the plaintiff's "Defender" modules, were All were distributed with the Apple I1 computer only in their object code versions. Eleven of these pro- infringing copies. The Artic ROMs, when dumped to a printer, even contained a salted Williams copyright grams were registered and deposited with the Copyright Office in their object code versions only. notice. Apple brought suit to halt Franklin's distribution of Artic's defense rested entirely upon its assertions that all 14 of the programs. The trial court, on July 30, ROMs are utilitarian, not "writings." The further 1982, in a closely observed proceeding, had denied argument that a distinction must be drawn between Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction. source code and object code was also based upon their intelligibility to human beings. Both arguments were Had this decision been upheld, the legal protection of rejected by the Third Circuit, closing the "unlimited computer software would have been dealt a crippling loophole by which infringement of a computer pro- blow. The defendant's attack on the copyrightability gram is limited to the copying of a computer program of Apple's programs took several lines. Franklin had text but not to duplication of a computer program argued, and the district court agreed, that the indirect, impersonal, indeed inhuman nature of object fixed on a silicon chip." code was at "the heart of this case." Instructions writ- Based upon its Williamsprecedent and other recent ten in this "machine's language" were held uncopy- authority, the Third Circuit readily disposed of object rightable because there is no "human interaction." code and ROM issues in Apple. The Apple programs "To go beyond the bounds of this protection would be are "literary works" within the meaning of the ultimately to provide copyright protection to the pro- statute, ROMs are a suitable medium on which such grams created by a computer to run other computers. works may be inscribed, and the utilitarian functions With that," wrote Judge Newcomer, "we step into the of the ROMs are distinct. The ROMs are read by the world of Gulliver where horses are 'human' because computer and the program contained thereon does not they speak a language that sounds remarkably like thereby lose its character as a copyrightable writing. the one humans use." Computer Focus - International February 1984 3 HP Computer Museum www.hpmuseum.net For research and education purposes only. Management Topics The third issue identified by the Third Circuit in The Third Circuit in Appledid not rule on the validity Apple was one not raised in Williams, whether of copyright registration of programs in object code. copyright can exist in an operating system program. The Copyright Office currently accepts such applica- Franklin contended that an operating system program tions and required depository material under what is is per se uncopyrightable and is either a "process," a called "the rule of doubt." A court ordinarily, in any "system," or a "method of operation." Judge Sloviter, infringement action, will first address the threshold again pointing out the duality of the nature of a com- question of copyright validity. Nevertheless, with puter program, particularly one etched on a ROM, Applesafely in the barrel, the volume of applications rejected this argument which, in his words, "mistak- for program copyright registration may be expected to enly focuses on the physical characteristics of the increase. Copyright rights in a program begin when instructions. But the medium is not the message." the program is created and, unless surrendered or His observation seems right on point. In fact, it is inadvertently lost, remain viable for years. But probably unfamiliarity with both the medium (the registration is required before any infringement ROM) and the message (computer programs of any action can proceed and before any of those rights can genre), which has led to the latest revival of the be enforced. human intelligibility theory of copyright. That theory Registration before infringement occurs brings the rears its head at intervals decades apart. When it does, program owner substantial additional benefits. These it sometimes creates durable legal anomalies like include eligibility for statutory damages, prima facie White-Smith (pianola rolls), while sometimes it is proof of program ownership and originality, and last quickly put down as in Learned Hand's opinion in - but far from least - award of attorney's fees to Reiss (telecommunication code words).To illustrate, successful plaintiffs in infringement cases. If you con- consider the example of a novelist's work when his template registering your program, consult a compe- typed manuscript is fed into an optical character tent expert for advice before you proceed. reader (OCR). It is, at once, both a medium (the This article reprinted with permission from "ICP paper) containing a message (the novel) and a ma- Insiders' Letter, "November 1983. @ by International chine element. The OCR machine, of course, cares not Computer Programs, Inc., 9000 Keystone Crossing, at all about human intelligibility - which many P. 0. Box 40946, Indianapolis, IN 46240. modern novels never achieve anyway. It "looks" at the shape, size, and position of the characters and cre- Khd ates ASCII or other codes which may then be transmitted over a distance or accessed for word pro- cessing. Certainly the copyrightability of the novelist's work is not thereby called into question. Computer Focus - International 4 February 1984 Marketing HP Technical OEM presented by delegates from HP, software contribu- tions will be distributed in the form of a swap tape, Conference Scheduled and a vendor show will feature more than 120 exhibits The 1984 HP Technical Systems OEM Conference is of HP 3000-related products. Over 1,800 users are expected to participate. , scheduled for March 28-30,1984 at Ricky's Hyatt Hotel in Palo Alto, California. Conference registration costs $400. For further infor- The objectives of the Conference are to: mation, contact: Further strengthen our Working Partnership Conference Manager HP 3000 IUG Share HP's strategic directions and new product 2570 W.