''Computer Edge v Apple'' was a decision handed down by the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...

on 6 May 1986, concerning copyright in computer software. The

appellant In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

was an importer of 'Wombat' personal computers compatible with the Apple operating system. The

respondent A respondent is a person who is called upon to issue a response to a communication made by another. The term is used in legal contexts, in survey methodology, and in psychological conditioning. Legal usage In legal usage, this term specificall ...

had instituted proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia alleging that the applicants had infringed copyright in two computer programs related to the Apple system, namely the Autostart program and the Applesoft program. It had been held at trial before Beaumont J that there was no breach of copyright, as neither source nor object code could be defined as literary works under the Copyright Act. The verdict had then been appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia, where it was held unanimously that the two Apple programs were original literary works. The majority also held that the Apple read only memory (ROM) chips in the Wombat computer were sufficiently derived from these literary works to constitute an infringement of copyright. Special leave to appeal was granted, and in the High Court of Australia it was held that machine-readable works were not literary works under the 1968 Copyright Act. Consequences of the successful High Court appeal were limited in scope. The decision in the original 1983 trial had already caused major ramifications for the relatively young field of software for personal computing. Soon after the 1983 decision was handed down, the Australian Attorney-General Gareth Evans announced that legislation would be amended to ensure computer software was protected by the Copyright Act and this occurred via the Copyright Amendment Act 1984 No. 43 of 1984.''Hansard'', Parliament of Australia, 8 May 1984. This had rendered the High Court outcome of no consequence, or "moot" for future activity although it retained significance for the parties to litigation themselves.

References

{{reflist, 2 High Court of Australia cases Apple Inc. litigation 1986 in case law