Quaid Software

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.