What is Protected in a Computer Program

What is Protected in a Computer Program
Author: Josef Drexl
Publisher: Wiley-VCH
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1994-11-29
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

The first few years of the 90s have been extremely important for the development of software copyright both in the United States and Europe. In the United States, major decisions redefined the idea/expression dichotomy in different cases. In Europe, countries are still in the process of harmonizing their national laws with the EC Software Directive. The study compares traditional and evolving copyright standards as applied to computer programs on both sides of the Atlantic. It may well be said that recent case law has brought America closer to Europe. On the other hand, American experience turns out to be a useful guideline for distinguishing between the concepts of idea and expression in the sense of the software directive.

Software Protection

Software Protection
Author: G. Gervaise Davis
Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
Total Pages: 408
Release: 1985
Genre: Law
ISBN:

Legal Protection of Computer Programs in Europe

Legal Protection of Computer Programs in Europe
Author: Bridget Czarnota
Publisher: Lexis Law Publishing (Va)
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1991
Genre: Law
ISBN:

This book combines an authoritative interpretation of the EC Council Directive on the legal protection of software adopted in May 1991, with a practitioner's view on how to deal with the issues it raises for industry and the legal profession. Legal Protection of Computer Programmes in Europe provides a valuable comparison of the Directive to the corresponding laws of the US, Japan and Eastern Europe and should prove of great use to all those who are legal advisers to software developers and distributors, as well as to those in the software industry itself involved in the drafting of licences.

Copyright Law and Computer Programs

Copyright Law and Computer Programs
Author: Jisuk Woo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2014-06-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135694826

This book analyzes U.S. federal cases on the copyright protection of computer software programs, to examine the role of communication in legal decision making process. It is the first to apply Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration to analyze law in a systematic and empirical way. Previous studies considered law to be independent, objective and neutral, and even those that considered social structures and actors focused on economic and political factors. Employing the framework of the author, the work, and the use, this study attempts to show how relationships and struggles of the parties are actually manifested through communication, and how the strategic communication of the parties influences the structural environment of copyright law. There has been a long-running debate over whether and how the copyright law, evolved from the era of the print technology, should be applied to computer programs, a new work of authorship. Contrary to some cautionary arguments that modern copyright law tends to protect copyright holders while disregarding authors' rights, the struggle between developers and non-developers, rather than between copyright holders and non-copyright holders, was clearly manifested in legal arguments. The construct of authorship has been modified, yet remained central in copyright discourse. On the other hand, the concept of the use, despite the significance of users in copyright regime, has yet to be developed to play an important role in the legal arguments. Moreover, the factor of whether the party was a developing entity, was found to be a single most important factor influencing the courts' decisions. But only when the party could successfully present itself as the one involved with developing activities, the court was more likely to accept its argument than the other party's. Therefore, it was the legitimacy gained by communicating the nature of the party, rather than the nature of the party itself, that made the difference in the ways the courts made decisions. This book presents how, in this process of strategic communication, the structure of copyright law was reproduced and transformed.