Emulating is not copying

Nova Productions Ltd v Mazooma Games Ltd and others; Same v Bell Fruit Games Ltd CLA TLR 5 April

Ideas and principles which underly any element of a computer program are not protected by copyright under article 1(2) of Council Directive 91/250/EEC. An idea consisting of a combination of ideas is still just an idea. That is as true for ideas in a computer program as for any other copyright work. Accordingly, making a computer program which emulates another computer program without copying the program code, did not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the other program or in its preparatory design material. Considering the case on artistic work, individual frames stored in the memory of a computer are graphic works under s4(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patterns Act 1988. The claimant contended for a further kind of artistic work beyond individual freeze graphics, on the basis that the defendant had created a dynamic ‘re-posing’ of the claimants’ version, which was said to involve extra skill and labour. The court agreed with the defendant, that a series of stills was not in itself more than a series of frames each of which would have its own copyright and no more.