Autodesk Inc v Dyason (No 2) - Liability for reverse engineering computer programs
The plaintiff owned copyright in a drafting program used by architects and engineers called “Autocad”. It was sold with an electronic device, the “Autolock”, to attach to the computer. The program would not run without the “Autolock”, preventing its use on more than one computer at any one time. The defendant cracked the code and produced a device called “Autokey”, which performed the same function as the “Autolock”.
Held, defendant had infringed copyright in the “Autocad” by reproducing a substantial part of the program in the device.
Data Access Corp v Powerflex Services Pty Ltd