Autodesk Inc & Anor v Dyason

Autodesk Inc and Autodesk Australia Pty Ltd (the applicants) sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision concerning the copyright protection afforded to computer programs. The dispute involved allegations of copyright infringement by Martin Patrick Dyason, Christine Dyason, and Peter Dyason (the respondents).

The primary legal issue before the High Court was the nature of the protection granted by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) to computer programs, particularly in light of amendments made in 1984 specifically to protect such works. This involved determining the type of resemblance required to establish a "reproduction" of a copyright work and the type of resemblance necessary to constitute an "adaptation" of a work, within the context of computer programs. The applicants argued that these questions were critical to understanding the scope of copyright protection for software.

The applicants submitted that the 1984 amendments were intended to provide copyright protection for computer programs, which were now expressly defined and included within the definition of "literary work". They contended that the court needed to consider how the existing tests for infringement, namely reproduction in a material form or the making of an adaptation, applied to computer programs. This case was significant as it was the first to come before an appellate court dealing with the effect of these specific amendments, distinguishing it from earlier cases like *Apple v Computer Edge* which were decided under the previous legislative framework.