Opinion ID: 6487
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: scope of copyright

Text: PROTECTION FOR USER INTERFACES Two qualifications on this discussion must be noted. Because of the factual content of many of these issues, it is expedient to remand to the district court, which conducted a fullscale trial, to reconsider his decision according to the principles about to be explained. The judge's interpretation of Synercom, a decision by which he believed he was bound, rendered a close factual analysis unnecessary. Second, this is not a case in which the outer limits of copyright protection for computer-user interface need be explored. The input and output formats for SACS IV are quasi-textual; while they guide the user in performing a series of sophisticated structural analyses, they consist of a series of words and a framework of instructions that act as prompts for the insertion of relevant data. In some computer programs, the user interface may merge almost wholly with the expression, processes, or ideas embodied in the program -- voice-activated or virtual reality programs or those attuned to the human heartbeat furnish some examples that may trouble courts in the future. We do not presume to anticipate the legal consequences of such technological developments. The analysis below focuses, as did the parties in their briefs, on the copyrightability of EDI's input formats. There is no intuitive reason why the analysis should be any different for output formats. Indeed, in some cases it may be difficult to 14 classify a given interface as one or the other. Clearly, therefore, some output formats will contain sufficient original expression to merit protection. Cf. Broderbund Software, Inc. v. Unison World, Inc., 648 F.Supp. 1127 (N.D. Cal. 1986) (interface of program which generated customized greeting cards copyrightable). Generally, we endorse the abstraction-filtrationcomparison method of determining copyright protection for computer programs, which has been ably elucidated by the Tenth Circuit in Gates Rubber, 9 F.3d 823, 834 (10th Cir. 1993). The court summarized this method as follows: First, in order to provide a framework for analysis, we conclude that a court should dissect the program according to its varying levels of generality as provided in the abstractions test. Second, poised with this framework, the court should examine each level of abstraction in order to filter out those elements of the program which are unprotectable. Filtration should eliminate from comparison the unprotectable elements of ideas, processes, facts, public domain information, merger material, scenes a faire material, and other unprotectable elements suggested by the particular facts of the program under examination. Third, the court should then compare the remaining protectable elements with the allegedly infringing program to determine whether the defendants have misappropriated substantial elements of the plaintiff's program. It is unnecessary here to reproduce the Gates Rubber court's thoughtful explanations of the various components of this approach. See also discussions in Altai, 982 F.2d at 706-11; 3 Nimmer, § 13.03[F] (advocating much the same test as successive filtering). We shall apply that methodology to the parties' arguments in order to provide guidance and to narrow the issues on 15 remand. The abstraction-filtration-comparison method was developed in cases dealing with the copyrightability of parts of computer programs other than user interface. Judge Keeton, however, employed a similar systematic approach to the Lotus user interface cases. See Lotus I, supra; Lotus Development Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc., 788 F.Supp 78 (D. Mass. 1992)(Lotus II); etc. Describing this approach as abstraction-filtration-comparison should not convey a deceptive air of certitude about the outcome of any particular computer copyright case. Protectible originality can manifest itself in many ways, so the analytic approach may need to be varied to accommodate each case's facts. See Altai, 982 F.2d at 706 (three-step test can and should be modified when computer technology demands it); Gates Rubber, 9 F.3d at 834, n.12 (same). Given that caveat, we adopt the Gates Rubber/Altai/Nimmer method to consider EDI's user interface, input formats and output reports.
The purpose of segmenting a computer program into successive levels of generality is to help a court separate ideas [and processes] from expression and eliminate from the substantial similarity analysis those portions of the work that are not eligible for copyright protection. 3 Nimmer, § 13.03[F] at 13-102.17. Judge Learned Hand first penned the abstraction method to analyze the elements of a literary work to distinguish between protectible expression and abstract unprotectible ideas. Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 45 F.2d 119, 121 (2d Cir. 1930), cert. 16 denied, 282 U.S. 902 (1931). Analogizing his formula to computer programs, at each level of abstraction into which the program can be segmented, the court determines whether the contents of that segment depict an idea, process or method, which, inseparable from its expression or incapable of expression by any other means, is therefore uncopyrightable.10 Abstraction of ideas from expression does not pose a particular conceptual hurdle in this case for three reasons. First, EDI seeks copyright protection not of its entire suite of SACS programs but only of approximately 230 input-output formats that comprise the user interface. The user interface is analytically distinct from other parts of the program. See Ogilvie, supra note 10, 19 Mich. L. Rev. at 542 n. 73. Second, EDI claimed protection of input and output formats not individually but en masse. It is thus unnecessary to decide whether each individual input format card or output format report represents an idea or an expression. 10 The abstraction method makes good sense intuitively, but its application to computer programs has been problematic. A particular source of difficulty has been definitional -- how to describe the levels of generality ascending in computer programs from the literal code to the most general idea of the program itself. Case law has approached the definitional problem inconsistently. One author, while criticizing the courts' diverse and halting efforts at using the abstraction method, suggests that the levels of abstraction can be conformed to six technical component norms recognized among computer programmers. See John W. L. Ogilvie, Note, Defining Computer Program Parts under Lerned Hand's Abstraction Test in Software Copyright Infringement Cases, 91 Mich. L. Rev. 526 (1992). His proposed levels of abstraction, in descending order, are: the main purpose, system architecture, abstract data types, algorithms and data structures, source code, and object code. Ogilvie's levels of abstraction have already been approved by one circuit court. Gates Rubber Co., 9 F.3d 835. Ogilvie's levels of abstraction do not directly apply to the present case, however, because his note does not deal with user interfaces. 17 Third, the formats, taken as a whole, readily qualify as expression measured against the ideas versus expression dichotomy. Not all user interfaces will so easily pass that test. The purpose of the SACS input formats is to mediate between the user and the program, identifying what information is essential and how it must be ordered to make the program work. The output formats structure the results of calculations performed by the program informatively for the user. These formats do not selfevidently convey only an idea. Because of the functional quality of user interface, the abstraction portion of the three-step methodology may pose difficult questions. A user interface may often shade into the blank form that epitomizes an uncopyrightable idea, Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1880),11 or it can partake of high expression, like that found in some computerized video games. In the middle of the abstraction spectrum sit user interfaces such as that of Lotus 11 This approach is consistent with the Supreme Court's analysis in Feist, where the Court required some minimal degree of creativity, or a minimal creative spark before finding copyrightability in a compilation of a telephone book's white pages. 499 U.S. at 362, 363, 111 S.Ct. at 1296, 1297. More than trivial originality is necessary, however. This approach is consistent with the great majority of blank-form cases decided in other circuits. See Harper House, Inc. v. Thomas Nelson, Inc., 889 F.2d 197 (9th Cir. 1989) (compilation of blank forms in executive organizer copyrightable, but individual blank diary forms not protectible); Cash Dividend Check Corp. v. Davis, 247 F.2d 458 (9th Cir. 1957) (finding copyrightability of check with accompanying text describing a stamped-check plan to convert savings stamps into cash); Brown Instrument Co. v. Warner, 161 F.2d 910 (D.C. Cir. 1947) (graphic temperature-pressure charts designed to record not copyrightable); Taylor Instrument Co. v. Fawley-Brost Co., 139 F.2d 98 (7th Cir. 1943), cert. denied, 321 U.S. 785 (1944) (blank form for recording temperatures not copyrightable); see also Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. v. Graphic Controls Corp., 329 F.Supp. 517 (S.D.N.Y. 1971) (finding copyrightability of optically scanned answer sheet forms which provided spaces for indicating correct answers, but which also conveyed certain minimal information). Blank forms that are designed merely to record information rather than convey it are not copyrightable. See generally 1 Nimmer, § 2.18[B]. 18 1-2-3, whose menu structure, including its long prompts, contains numerous expressive features. See Lotus I, 740 F.Supp. at 65-68. As Judge Keeton put it, if a best-selling program's interface were not copyrightable, competitors would be free to emulate the popular interface exactly so long as the underlying programs were not substantially similar. This cannot be the law. The scientific, technical character of the SACS IV program distinguishes it in certain respects from the open-ended, user-directed spreadsheet user interface found copyrightable in Lotus I. But on this initial level of abstraction analysis, it is certain that there are numerous ways in which either input or output formats could have been structured in order to achieve the program's purpose. Consequently, it is appropriate to proceed further in considering the copyright protection available to EDI for its input formats and output reports.
The filtration component of the analysis seeks to isolate noncopyrightable elements from each particular level of a program. Copyright protects the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves, and it does not protect processes, methods or scientific discoveries. Other materials not subject to copyright include facts, information in the public domain, and scenes a faire, i.e., expressions that are standard, stock or common to a particular subject matter or are dictated by external factors. See Gates Rubber, 9 F.3d at 837-38. Each of these limitations upon copyright or defenses against illicit copying follows logically 19 from the purpose of the Copyright Act: to protect an author's original, creative expression insofar as is compatible with general advancement of expressive arts and the free use and development of non-protectable ideas and processes. Altai, 982 F.2d at 711. SSI forcefully advances several of these concepts in defense of the copying it engaged in to produce StruCAD. SSI contends that EDI's user interface comprises unoriginal facts, which are not copyrightable. It asserts that the data formats are merely a template that enables an engineer to use his tool, the computer. SSI also denies that EDI's compilation of input/output formats is copyrightable. Finally, SSI contends that EDI's user interface depends so heavily on engineering industry standards and practice that it is unprotectible under the scenes a faire doctrine. 1. Unprotectible Facts versus Original Expression SSI describes the input/output data formats as garden variety documentation that merely presents column-by-column formats of input data and describes the information . . . to be stored in each column, pictures, figures or diagrams, which merely elucidate basic engineering and mathematical relationships. Therefore, according to SSI, the input/output formats fail to satisfy the Feist-Zack Meyer originality test. In Feist, the Supreme Court held that an alphabetically arranged phonebook lacks the creativity and originality necessary to sustain a copyright. In Donald v. Zack Meyer's T.V. Sales and Service, 426 F.2d 1027 (5th Cir. 1970) (the Zack Meyer case), this circuit held that boilerplate 20 contractual language printed on a blank form was insufficiently original. As a comparison with the facts of Feist and Zack Meyer makes obvious, SSI's argument is simplistic in the present context. Certainly, one may isolate each individual input requirement or series of requirements and contend that it is merely shorthand for a common engineering formula. Likewise, abbreviations for terms, dictated by necessity or industry standard, are uncopyrightable by themselves. What appears on EDI's input and output formats, however, are not any kind of formulas or facts as such, but organized, descriptive tables for entry of data on which the computer will perform necessary calculations. Facts are entered by the user and factual algorithms are applied by the computer, but the appearance and expression of the user interface are not themselves a representation of facts. SSI does not assert that there is only one way or a limited number of ways in which such tables may be or are usually set forth. Given the complexity of offshore design projects, it is hardly surprising that a number of other competing structural design programs exist in the market, and the trial court found them dissimilar to SACS. As a matter of law, the input formats and output reports do not embody only noncopyrightable facts. 2. Input Formats as a Template, Process or Method Because the input data formats are organized in a particular fashion to effectuate the performance of mathematical calculations, SSI likens them to a template or tool used by the 21 engineer. We assume this argument relies on Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1880), although SSI has not cited that seminal case. Baker rejected a claim of copyright on a book that described a method of bookkeeping. Moreover, the author's ledger sheets were held not copyrightable because they were necessary incidents to the idea or process embodied in the bookkeeping method. Like Baker v. Selden, whether one denominates the input formats in this case as a process or as expression merged with a process, the demarcation between their utilitarian and expressive aspects is difficult to draw. Compare Altai, 982 F.2d at 712; Synercom, 462 F.Supp. at 1013-14. The difficulty may best be illustrated by comparing this case with those concerning infringement of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. The Lotus program enables a user to create documents adapted to his particular needs in a framework that may be varied and that may utilize different types of information. As the district court held in Lotus I, the command format and sequence structure in an original word processing or computer spreadsheet should be copyrightable because as a whole, the interface's structure and hierarchy constitute a high degree of original expression. See Lotus I, 740 F.Supp. at 65-68. The SACS input cards, in contrast, perform only one, admittedly challenging task: they supply engineering data for offshore structures. The question is whether the utilitarian function of the input formats, which ultimately act like switches in the electrical circuits of the program, outweigh their 22 expressive purpose so as to preclude copyright protection. On balance, we believe they do not. EDI's input formats as a whole convey substantial information regarding what data the user needs to gather and how they should be organized for the program to run properly. One of EDI's trial witnesses testified that the interface imparts knowledge by telling the user which data to collect as well as the order of collection. This alone does not necessarily mean that SACS imparts knowledge through protectible expression. But, generally, functional interfaces that directly teach or guide the user's independent decisions are more expressive than functional interfaces that lack these qualities. Although the degree of interaction may not be as high as that present in Lotus, overall, EDI has proved original expressive content in the selection, sequence and coordination of inputs. 3. EDI's User Interface as a Compilation of Facts SSI analogizes the copyrightability of the SACS input formats and output reports to the copyrightability of compilations as addressed in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel Serv. Co., Inc., 499 U.S. 340, 111 S.Ct. 1282 (1991). That case discarded the sweat-of-the-brow doctrine for compilations in favor of an analysis focusing on the originality of the compiler's expression. [C]opyright protects only the elements that owe their origin to the compiler -- the selection, coordination, and arrangements of facts. 499 U.S. at 359, 111 S.Ct. at 1295. No matter how original the format, however, the facts themselves do not become original through association. . . . This inevitably means that the 23 copyright in a factual compilation is thin. 499 U.S. at 349, 111 S.Ct. at 1289. Focusing on Feist's test for originality, SSI argues that many of the SACS input formats derive directly from Synercom's STRAN program. Moreover, SSI posits, data formats are data formats: organizing parameters and variables as a series of columns of engineering data amounts to a garden variety arrangement required in any structural analysis program and is similar to the unoriginal arrangement of names, addresses, and telephone numbers in a telephone directory. SSI concludes that the whole bundle of EDI's input formats and outputs reports is uncopyrightable. These arguments construe Feist both too broadly and too narrowly. Whether Feist should apply at all to the formats in question here is doubtful. As stated earlier, EDI's data cards do not consist of mere facts, nor do they portray a compilation so much as a progressive demonstration of a particular engineering program. But to the extent that Feist's definition of originality applies here, it appears that EDI has selected data and arranged their placement in a way that is unique and original to SACS. See Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l Inc., 831 F.Supp. 223, 231 (D. Mass. 1993) (Lotus V) (finding command menu interface copyrightable by comparing it to compilation: The selection, arrangement, and manner of presentation in a compilation may provide the user with a method or systematic manner of accessing the (uncopyrightable) facts. Thus, copyright law protects only that part of a compilation that the reader actually uses for selection of facts 24 that the reader wants to know). The creativity inherent in EDI's program is proved by the existence by other, dissimilar structural engineering programs available in the market. The existence of creativity is reinforced by SSI's observation that StruCAD performs the same functions as SACS with significantly fewer input formats. 4. User Formats as Dictated by Industry Standard Based upon the nature of the offshore structural engineering marketplace, SSI contends, EDI had to use the same or similar formats to those it chose in order to provide a compatible, standardized and efficient product for its customers. In other words, scenes a faire dictated EDI's choice of input formats and output reports in the same way that the external requirements of the cotton market dictated the program in Plains Cotton, supra, leading to a rejection of copyright protection in that case.12 Although the parties disagree over application of the doctrine in this case, neither side cites any evidence to support its position. On remand, the district court must consider whether or to what 12 A programmer's freedom of design choice may be circumscribed by other extrinsic considerations such as the nature of the hardware on which the program will run, compatibility requirements of other programs, computer manufacturers' design standards, the demands of the industry being served, and widely accepted programming practices within the computer industry. See Altai, 982 F.2d at 709-10, citing 3 Nimmer § 13.03[F][3], at 13-65-71. In Lotus I, for example, the court found that use of a rotated L screen display for spreadsheets, the use of a slash key to invoke a menu system, Q for quitting or exiting a system, and similar other common interfaces are not copyrightable because their use is unoriginal, nonexpressive, or thoroughly standardized. See Lotus I, 740 F.Supp. at 78. This opinion deals only with the externalities raised by SSI. 25 extent industry demand and practice in the offshore engineering market dictated the SACS IV input and output formats.13 This finding is only the first step, however, for anyone may copy uncopyrightable elements in a copyrighted work. SSI argues that many of EDI's cards are unoriginal and thus uncopyrightable. A close examination of the actual input formats is required to determine whether the allegedly infringed cards are copyrightable. Among the allegedly infringed cards, for instance, some may be so generic, e.g., a header or an end card, that they lack that minimal degree of creativity required for copyright protection. If other cards for which EDI claims copyright protection almost wholly derive from the input formats developed by Synercom many years earlier, they would also lack the requisite originality.14 Filtration has resulted in one area of potential unprotectibility that must be considered on remand, and that relates to the impact of the scenes a faire doctrine. SSI's other 13 Filtration may well render many of EDI's output formats uncopyrightable. (An example of the parties' output reports is reproduced in the appendix.) The remarkable similarities in some of these formats may be due to the inherent qualities of the ideas expressed (merger) or compliance with industry standards (scenes a faire). For example, each program must identify individual structural members and the forces acting upon them in a manner easily understood by engineers. The district judge will determine on remand whether there are multiple ways to express these concepts consistent with industry practice. 14 It appears that nine cards (TITLE, AMOD, SECT, GRUP, JOINT, PERSET, LOADCN, LOAD, and LDCOMB) are virtually the same as those developed by Synercom. A few have very slight modifications from Synercom's cards. For example, the AMOD cards in SACS and StruCAD provide for three-digit load condition numbers while STRAN allowed for only two-digit entries. This sort of originality probably does not meet the minimal requirements demanded by copyright. Similarly, the addition of columns for commentary is not sufficient to imbue a recycled Synercom card with copyrightability. 26 global objections to copyright protection for the input formats and output reports are ill-founded.
After the district court completes the filtration of the user interface as described, it must then decide whether SSI's work is substantially similar to the copyrighted works. See n.4 supra. The district court never ruled on many of the factual issues governing substantial similarity because of its view that computer data formats are not copyrightable. To determine substantial similarity, the court should focus on whether the defendant copied any aspect of this protected expression. Altai, 982 F.2d at 710. In this case, it is probably advisable for the court first to determine whether variations in the registered and copyrightable format cards adopted by StruCAD render the cards noninfringing elements of the larger work at the individual card level. Then the court may determine whether the subset of StruCAD cards that are individually substantially similar to their counterparts in SACS, are, taken together, so substantially similar to EDI's copyrighted work or a part thereof as to constitute infringement. While a determination of substantial similarity is, in the final analysis, a value judgment that resists the imposition of a rigid analytical framework, this only heightens the need for methodical analysis. The ultimate focus, in accordance with EDI's contention, should be on the input formats and output reports taken as a whole. 27 Another proposition to bear in mind is that the scope of protection afforded by a copyright is not constant across all literary works. Infringement is far more likely to have occurred where a defendant has copied a memorable phrase from a short poem than where the defendant has copied an explanatory phrase from a voluminous textbook on biochemistry, because the law is more protective of highly original and highly expressive works than it is of functional and nonfiction works. This distinction is recognized in Feist, where, because the allegedly infringed work was a collection of facts, the Court noted that any copyright was thin. 499 U.S. at 349, 111 S.Ct. at 1289. The same cautious approach to protection is appropriate for computer user interfaces. To the extent that they are highly functional, or, like the output formats in this case, to the extent that they contain highly standardized technical information, they may lie very near the line of uncopyrightability.15 This relatively narrow scope of copyright protection has been adopted by several courts. In Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc., 831 F.Supp. 202, 209 (D.Mass. 1993) (Lotus IV), Judge Keeton referred to the scope of copyright protection as a sliding 15 As mentioned earlier, some cases may require courts to vary the abstraction-filtration-comparison test to accommodate particular facts. We do not find it necessary to do so, but by way of illustration, our interface copyrightability analysis in this case has focused on three inquiries. First, whether the interface is simply a blank form that fails to convey expression to the user. Second, whether the interface is sufficiently user-directed and interactive. Third, analogous to a compilation, whether the interface provides original expression through the selection, sequence, and organization of information provided to and collected from the user. In this case all of these requisites were met. After applying other more standard copyrightability filters, such as scenes a faire, the district court will determine whether the thin copyright EDI may enjoy has been infringed. 28 scale that changes with the availability of expressions for a given idea, and he impliedly accorded computer interfaces only a narrow protection. Noting that the menu commands and menu structure of the computer spreadsheet program in that case were highly functional, Judge Keeton emphasized that the defendant had infringed by copying verbatim Lotus's entire command menu hierarchy despite the availability of many different command structures to perform the same functions. See also Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 799 F.Supp. 1006, 1021 (N.D. Cal. 1992) (determining scope of infringement for user interface: [I]f technical or conceptual constraints limit the available ways to express an idea. . . copyright law will abhor only a virtually identical copy of the original.); Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 975 F.2d 832, 840 (Fed. Cir. 1992) (determining infringement of nonliteral elements of computer program: Even for works warranting little copyright protection, verbatim copying is infringement.); Digital Communications Assocs., Inc. v. Softklone Distrib. Corp., 659 F.Supp. 449 (N.D.Ga. 1987) (finding infringement in a computer program's status screen which was virtually identical with the plaintiff's); Harcourt Brace & World, Inc. v. Graphic Controls Corp., 329 F.Supp. 517, 525 (S.D.N.Y. 1971) (according narrow scope of protection to answer sheet designed to be optically scanned by computers); 3 Nimmer, § 13.03[B][2][b] (If the only original aspect of a work lies in its literal expression, then only a very close similarity, verging 29 on the identical, will suffice to constitute an infringing copy.) (citing cases).