Background Information
Vault Corporation created and held the copyright for a program called PROLOK, which provided copy protection for software on floppy disks. Software companies purchased PROLOK from Vault in order to protect their software from end users making unauthorized copies. PROLOK worked by having an indelible "fingerprint" on each PROLOK protected disk in addition to the PROLOK software and the software to be protected. The PROLOK protected program allowed the software to function only if the fingerprint was present on the disk.
Quaid Software Ltd. created a program called RAMKEY, which allowed copies of Vault's clients' software to function without the original program disks. RAMKEY made PROLOK think that the necessary fingerprint was present even though it was not.
Read more about this topic: Vault Corp. V. Quaid Software Ltd.
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