ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
16 district · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 126 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2024 · most notably 134 S. Ct. 1377 - Lexmark Int'l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (2014), Lexmark Int'l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (2014)
16 district · 28 state decisions — followed in 16 states
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
Relies on Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute · American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens · Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp. · Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc.
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 126 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A copyright is a right against the world. Contracts, by contrast, generally affect only their parties; strangers may do as they please, so contracts do not create `exclusive rights.'”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he software [on the ProCD CD-ROM] splashed the license on the screen and would not let [Zeidenberg] proceed without indicating acceptance.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[n]otice on the outside, terms on the inside, and a right to return the software for a refund if the terms are unacceptable (a right that the license expressly extends) may be a means of doing business valuable to buyers and sellers alike.”
5 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.