Copyright in Shareware Software Distributed on the Internet - The Trumpet Winsock Case

Since the 1980s most countries worldwide have introduced laws which extend copyright protection to computer software. In the first Australian case to consider copyright in a shareware computer program distributed on the Internet, the court held that the Internet service provider OzEmail had infringed Trumpet Software's copyright in Trumpet Winsock 2.OB by arranging for the program and a set of altered data files to be distributed with other software on diskette as a give-away inserted in copies of computer magazines. The implications of this case for software developers, distributors, and users are presented.