Tailoring Legal Protection for Computer Software

Tailoring Legal Protection for Computer Software

It became evident by the mid-1970s that intellectual work embodied in new technologies-in particular, computer software-did not fit neatly within the traditional forms of legal protection for intellectual property.' Because of the complexity of these issues, Congress created the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) for the purpose of recommending a national...

Chemical Engineering Software and Legal Protection Thereof

In recent years, an increasing number of Chemical Engineering Software (CES), which play an important role in improving efficiency in the petroleum industry, has been introduced to the                market. Generally, software is the product of intellectual creativity, but protection of the intellectual property residing in software is the subject of some controversy.  This paper explores the ...

Legal and Economic Justification for Software Protection

This article discusses legal and economic rationale in regards to open source software protection. Software programs are, under TRIPS1, protected by copyright (reference is made to the Berne Convention2). The issue with this protection is that, due to the dichotomy idea/expression that is typical for copyright protection, reverse engineering of software is not excluded, and copyright is hence f...

Australian Recommendations on Computer Software Protection

We present the main recommendations of the Copyright Law Review Committee in its submission to the Australian Government in 1995 in relation to the protection of computer software in Australia and the intellectual property of software developers in this country. The implications of these recommendations to the academic and industry computer science community are presented, as well as comparison...

Copyright: a Too Strong Protection Policy for Computer Software?