Wall Data Inc v. Los Angeles County Sheriff

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff-Appellee Wall Data Incorporated develops, mar- kets, and sells a line of copyrighted computer terminal emula- tion software products including RUMBA Office and RUMBA Mainframe. Both RUMBA products allow personal computers that use one operating system to access data stored on computers that use a different operating system. RUMBA Office is the more expensive and more powerful computer program.

Between December 1996 and February 1999, the Appellants-Defendants, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the County of Los Angeles (collectively, “Sheriff’s Department”), purchased both of Wall Data’s RUMBA software products through an approved vendor. In December 1996, the Sheriff’s Department purchased eight “units” of Wall Data’s RUMBA Office program. Each of the eight units contained a RUMBA Office CD-ROM (compact disc read-only-memory) and a volume license booklet. Each volume license booklet granted the Sheriff’s Department 250 licenses to RUMBA Office. In total, the Sheriff’s Department paid $175,220 for 2,000 RUMBA Office licenses, at a reduced price of $87.61 per license.2 2 The Sheriff’s Department argues that it bought 2,000…