backup

[JJM]

What is the name of your state? IN

I posted this under the computer and software forum but I thought I'd post it here as well. The company I work for is currently backing up the C drive on one of their servers to tapes. This includes the Program files. I know that some EULAs say that you can only make one backup of their software. So would that make this practice infringement? We also backups of the Documents and Settings folder. Which I think may contain bits and pieces of some software and the operating system. Would this also be infringement?

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? IN

I posted this under the computer and software forum but I thought I'd post it here as well. The company I work for is currently backing up the C drive on one of their servers to tapes. This includes the Program files. I know that some EULAs say that you can only make one backup of their software. So would that make this practice infringement? We also backups of the Documents and Settings folder. Which I think may contain bits and pieces of some software and the operating system. Would this also be infringement?

Backups of software are generally permissible, but the statutes and caselaw are complicated. The usual "impermissible" backup is really a copy of the original disks, which can then be used to install the software on another system, or be used to make further copies of the installation disks for distribution -- and even this type of "backup" is permissible in some situations. In this case, it is quite unlikely that either a) the EULA really prohibits this type of "backup," or b) that statutes or caselaw would prohibit or restrict this type of backup. I am not familiar with any cases or statutes that would prohibit or restrict backing up an entire harddrive. In other words, what you are doing is highly unlikely to be infringing.

 

[JJM]

Here is a follow up question. Would one need to get rid of the backed up files once the computer is no longer in use/owned by the company?