Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd.’s Empirical Analysis
847 F.2d 255 · 1988
Citation profile
29 federal appellate · 8 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2018 · most notably Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005), A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. (2001)
29 federal appellate · 8 district · 1 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 102 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 106 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 107 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 108 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 117 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 302 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 501 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc · Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co. · National Labor Relations Board v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n · Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. · Smith v. Harmsen
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 76 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or (2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be rightful.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the act of loading a program from a medium of storage into a computer's memory creates a copy of the program”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.