Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
714 F.2d 1240 (1983)
Relevant factsFree
Franklin (defendant) copied Apple's (plaintiff) operating-system programs verbatim to ensure its competing computer worked with all Apple II software; the district court denied Apple's preliminary injunction, apparently reasoning object code (unlike source code, which Franklin conceded was protectable) couldn't qualify as a literary work under the Copyright Act.
IssueFree
Whether both object code and source code qualify as literary works under § 101 of the Copyright Act.
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