MAI v. Peak
A 1993 US case in which switching on a computer was enough to infringe, because doing so copied the software into RAM.
Peak Computer serviced MAI Systems machines for MAI's own customers, more cheaply than MAI did. To diagnose faults, Peak's technicians booted the computers, which loaded MAI's operating system into memory. The Ninth Circuit held that the copy in RAM was fixed enough to count as a copy under copyright law, and that Peak had no licence to make it.
The reasoning turned every program run into a copyright event, letting manufacturers lock out independent service firms. Congress carved out an exception for maintenance and repair in 17 U.S.C. § 117(c) in 1998, but the RAM-copy doctrine survives and turns up in every dispute over who is allowed to run what.