Andy Johnson-Laird

Johnson-Laird is a photographer and a documentary film maker. In 2005 he implemented a variant of a technique known as streak photography, that used computer software to create computer-generated images. His techniques of computational photography create photographs that are compositions of color and line that appear realistic, but are not. In 2010, in collaboration with Kay Kitagawa and Dina Gomez, Johnson-Laird directed, produced, and edited "EMMA: Unplugged," a 90-minute documentary of the 2010 Emma International Collaboration, an artists' retreat in the Saskatchewan boreal forest hosted by the Saskatchewan Craft Council. He has also directed, produced, and edited other video projects.

In 1994, the Honorable Marvin J. Garbis, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland appointed Johnson-Laird as a court-appointed expert in the matter of Vaughn v. Amprey, Civil Action No. MJG-84-1911. Additionally, in 2007 Johnson-Laird was appointed as Special Master by Judge Stephen V. Wilson, Central District of California, in the MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. case. His appointment on remand encompassed recommending appropriate actions to impose by Permanent Injunction on Defendant StreamCast that would "cope with the copyright infringement" caused by peer-to-peer file sharing systems, while "preserving non-infringing uses" of the system. In 2010, he was appointed Special Master in DataSci v. Medidata, a case before the Honorable Marvin J. Garbis, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. His role was to resolve discovery disputes relating to the production of computer source code.

Johnson-Laird is one of the early pioneers in the field of digital forensics. His specialty, developed in 1987, is forensic software analysis of computer and Internet-based evidence for copyright, patent, and trade-secret litigation. He is also an expert on software reverse engineering, software development, and developing software in a clean-room environment.

Johnson-Laird's 1979 immigration to the United States resulted in litigation over "a legal issue of first impression" concerning "the proper interpretation of section 101(a)(15)(L) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. s 1101(a)(15)(L), which allows 'a firm or corporation or other legal entity' to petition for the granting of 'non-immigrant' status to employees which it wishes to transfer to corporate posts in this country". Johnson-Laird was successful in his challenge to the agency's interpretation of this rule to not permit a petition for an "L" visa by a sole proprietorship. Johnson-Laird was represented by Portland immigration attorney, Gerald H. Robinson Esq. United States District Court Judge James Redden ruled that "Congress intended that the legal status of the petitioning business not be a dispositive consideration in immigration proceedings".

On arriving in the US in 1979, Johnson-Laird wrote the software drivers to permit the CP/M Operating System to run on an Onyx computer—this was the first commercial CP/M microcomputer with a hard disk and a data cartridge tape drive.

In the late 1970s, Johnson-Laird applied his knowledge of mainframe computers to the emerging hobbyist personal computer market. He purchased and hand-built a SOL-20 personal computer from Processor Technology, and a Cromemco Z-2 as test platforms.

Johnson-Laird's computer career started in 1963 at National Cash Register Company's London offices where he worked as a computer operator and taught himself to program the NCR 315 mainframe computer during the night shift. He was then invited to teach as a lecturer in NCR's Computer Education department, teaching NCR customers how to program. Subsequently, he wrote system software for the NCR-Elliott 4100 mainframe computer. Johnson-Laird also worked as a systems programmer for Control Data Corporation in Ferney-Voltaire in support of supercomputer installations at CERN. and various universities in Europe. He transferred to Control Data Corporation's Toronto Development Facility in 1977.

Andy Johnson-Laird (born February 1945) is an English-American computer scientist. He was the president of digital forensics firm Johnson-Laird Inc. in Portland, Oregon, where he lived with his wife, Kay Kitagawa.

Johnson-Laird was born in Sheffield in England in February 1945. He was educated at Culford School and then attended the Regent Street Polytechnic, now known as The University of Westminster. Johnson-Laird also has lived in Ferney-Voltaire (France), Toronto (Canada), and San Jose, (Northern California).

In addition to serving as a technical expert in high-profile and significant litigation, Johnson-Laird's published writings have been cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, first in Sega Enterprises Ltd., v. Accolade Inc., No. 92-15665, D. C. No. CV-91-3871-BAC, as authority for practical necessity to make intermediary copies to understand protected expression in software. Later the court cited Johnson-Laird's article "Software Reverse Engineering in the Real World," University of Dayton Law Review, Volume 19, November 3, Spring 1994, in the case Sony v. Connectix, No. 99-15852, D.C. No. CV-99-00390-CAL, as authority for the need to reverse engineer when developing compatible products and therefore the intermediary copies created in such reverse engineering should be considered fair use under U.S. Copyright Law.