1994 SOFTWARE OWNERSHIP/CONTRACT BOOK NOW AVAILABLE

The 1994 edition of THE SOFTWARE LEGAL BOOK by Paul S. Hoffman is now
available from Shafer Books, Inc., Croton-on-Hudson, NY. The author notes
that the past year has been an active one for court cases defining the
extent of copyright protection of software beyond the literal code and on
"work for hire" copyright ownership.

Following the landmark Supreme Court Feist case, a Court of Appeals in
Bellsouth v. Donnelley found the yellow pages heading structure largely
dictated by functional considerations and industry practice. By putting
added emphasis on "functional considerations" and "industry practice",
Bellsouth is likely to have significant impact in software infringement
cases. In the latest generation of the Lotus v. Borland case, a court
found on-the-fly translation using internal menu copies to be infringing -
but did not decide whether a one-shot translation, rather than emulation,
would be infringing. In a later generation of Apple v. Microsoft, the
court found that screen infringement required a "virtual identity"
infringement standard. And in Atari v. Nintendo, the court found that the
defendant's inclusion of the same unnecessary features may help prove
infringement.

The employers won and lost in two significant "work for hire" cases on
software ownership under the Supreme Court CCNV v. Reid case. In Avtec
Systems v. Peiffer a court found an employee's software work product a
"work for hire" though made at home. And in Aymes v. Bonelli, the
influential second circuit Court of Appeals found the software not a work
for hire - largely based on the employer's election not to withhold FICA
and other taxes.

The new Software Legal Book 1994 edition provides current guidance to
managers and lawyers on all major aspects of software ownership and
contracts. Initially published in 1981 as the first book devoted to
software ownership and contracting, the annually updated two volume
looseleaf set provides a practical guide - including software contract
"do's" and "don'ts", tools for analyzing ownership, checklists, sample
clauses and sample agreements. The Software Legal Book's "how to" approach
to handling software ownership and contracting problems makes it different
from most other computer law and forms books. Written by an actively
practicing software contract lawyer, coverage includes: ownership of
copyright in software modifications; what software copyright protects;
tools for analyzing 'rights' situations and determining who has the right
to license, and form language examples for allocating custom software
rights between parties. Also covered are: employee agreements; "work for
hire"; "joint works"; "derivative works"; international software
protection; bundled system contracts; disclosure agreements; software
distribution agreements; and handling software contracts in mergers. A
comprehensive separately tabbed index provides easy access to test
discussion and sample clauses.

The appendix includes software-relevant portions of the copyright law and
regulations and the Uniform Trade Secret Act, international copyright
treaty tables, the Uniform Commercial Code, the 1988 bankruptcy law
changes and the 1991 European Software Directive. Forms provided range
from employee agreements to agreements for disclosure, custom software
development, beta test, software distribution, teaming and source code
escrow. All form examples include some explanation or context information.
As an option, selected forms are available on 3-1/2" disk in WordPerfect
format.

The author of The Software Legal Book, Paul S. Hoffman, is an actively
practicing software lawyer and CDP with more than twenty five years of
experience with software related contracts.

The 1994 book may be ordered from Shafer Books, Inc., P.O. Box 40,
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520-0040 (phone 914-271-6919 or fax 914-271-5193)
at a cost of US$185.00 (US$225.00 with Forms on Disk) plus shipping, 10%
discount on prepaid orders.

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