Academic Journal
Software protection under European community law.
| Τίτλος: | Software protection under European community law. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Wehlau, Andreas |
| Πηγή: | Information & Communications Technology Law; Jan1993, Vol. 2 Issue 1, p3-19, 17p |
| Περίληψη: | The European Community has enacted a Directive for the harmonisation of national copyright laws in respect of computer software. This paper briefly discusses alternatives to copyright as a means of protection before outlining some fundamental problems of using copyright for software protection: the basic distinction between idea and expression causes difficulties with formal programming languages. A secrecy protection cannot be afforded by copyright. The situation of economic power and interest is quite different in the software sector. Nevertheless the greatly differing case‐law in Europe makes harmonisation desirable. After a short description of the Directive, some inconsistencies in this instrument are pointed out: the program idea is expressly not protected, but the access to the idea is restricted. Further contradictions arise, where an idea is inseparable from its expression. The provisions allowing reverse analysis only in order to gain interface information are meaningless, since any part of a program could potentially become an interface. Conflicts with patent legislation are not addressed in the Directive. This paper concludes by proposing a restrictive interpretation of some provisions of the Directive, thus giving priority to the principle of non‐copyrightability of ideas and allowing reverse analysis of software as a legitimate way of reading program information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
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| Βάση Δεδομένων: | Complementary Index |
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