OCTOBER 2008

IN THIS ISSUE

Please Select an Article to Read

• Information security
• The importance of good legal advice
• Intellectual property and Web 2.0
• Environmentally friendly, not misleading and deceptive
• Copying of software permitted for disaster recovery purposes
• Australian Law Reform Commission: Report on privacy
• NZ Patents Bill
• Trade mark office upholds foreign laws
• Chocolate war: Kit Kat shape refused trade mark registration

 

Copying of software permitted for disaster recovery purposes

August 2008

The Federal Court has found that Racing & Wagering Western Australia (RWWA) did not breach the terms of a software licence with Software AG (Australia) Pty Ltd (SAG) by making a copy of software (by the means of ‘disk mirroring’) on RWWA’s off-site disaster recovery mainframe. 

SAG claimed that RWWA breached the terms of the licence agreement by installing SAG’s proprietary software on a second machine at a location other than the location designated in the licence without the consent of SAG.  SAG also claimed that it was entitled to additional licence fees or upgrade maintenance service fees as a consequence of this copying.  The Court accepted RWWA’s contention that the disaster recovery copy was permitted by the licence, which allowed copying of the software for ‘emergency restart purposes’.  The Court also ruled, although it was not necessary to do so on the facts, that the making of the disaster recovery copy and the related testing were permitted by ss 47C and 47F of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).

To read the case: Racing & Wagering Western Australia v Software AG (Australia) Pty Ltd [2008] FCA 1332

 

 

Written by Peter Dowdall, Associate