Quaid Software
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| Industry | software |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
Key people | Robert McQuaid (President) |
| Products | Copywrite |
Quaid Software, Ltd. was a software publisher based in Toronto, Ontario.[1] The company's best known product was Copywrite which company president Robert McQuaid claimed was "for making legal backup copies of a protected program."[1]
The company was the subject to a lawsuit claiming that the software was used for making illegal copies.[1] The lawsuit was dismissed because Section 117 of the US Copyright Act specifically allows:
- the new copy is being made for archival (i.e., backup) purposes only;
- you are the legal owner of the copy; and
- any copy made for archival purposes is either destroyed, or transferred with the original copy, once the original copy is sold, given away, or otherwise transferred.[2]
The Court concluded that, because of federal copyright law, its provisions (Louisiana License Act) were preempted (by the US Copyright Act) and Vault's license agreement was unenforceable.
