U.S-based tech giant Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) recently lost a copyright infringement battle that it launched against a security software startup called Corellium.
A Florida judge ruled in favor of Corellium in the lawsuit through which Apple accused the security startup of copyright infringement through its software. The judicial case focused on the startup’s virtualized ARM-based software that can run iOS on a browser sans physical handset. The virtualized tool aims to allow developers to analyze the code and detect potential security flaws or exploits.
Apple filed the lawsuit against Corellium in 2019 accusing the startup of Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement. Upon thorough examination, the judge found that the software security company included some extra features in its tool to allow kernel modifications. The modifications allow developers to observe and terminate processes, thus supporting the fair use.
“Corellium’s profit motivation does not undermine its fair use defense, particularly considering the public benefit of the product,” the judge noted in his judicial ruling.
Corellium might have won the battle but the war will continue
Although Apple lost courtesy of the recent ruling, the lawsuit is far from over. Only part of the case has been thrown out and Apple still claims that Corellium bypassed some iOS measures such as secure boot chain and authentication server. The company claims that by following this approach, the software startup violated the DMCA ban on circumventing measures implemented for copy protection. Corellium also argued copyright protection on the circumventing but its argument was not compelling enough to facilitate dismissal.
David L. Hecht, one of Corellium’s lawyers was pleased with the fair use judicial ruling. He also described the ruling as a strong balance between copyright protection and fair use which is a significant step forward for the security research industry. Meanwhile, Apple is still concerned that Corellium’s products might be used for malicious intent if they were to get into the wrong hands. However, Corellium vets its customers before selling the products, thus eliminating concerns about them being acquired by the wrong people.
