software law

legal Software may, under various circumstances and in

various countries, be restricted by patent or copyright or

both. Most commercial software is sold under some kind of

software license.

A patent normally covers the design of something with a

function such as a machine or process. Copyright restricts

the right to make and distribute copies of something written

or recorded, such as a song or a book of recipies. Software

has both these aspects - it embodies functional design in the

algorithms and data structures it uses and it could also be

considered as a recording which can be copied and "performed"

(run).

"Look and feel" lawsuits attempt to monopolize well-known

command languages; some have succeeded. Copyrights on

command languages enforce gratuitous incompatibility, close

opportunities for competition, and stifle incremental

improvements.

Software patents are even more dangerous; they make every

design decision in the development of a program carry a risk

of a lawsuit, with draconian pretrial seizure. It is

difficult and expensive to find out whether the techniques you

consider using are patented; it is impossible to find out

whether they will be patented in the future.

The proper use of copyright is to prevent software piracy

- unauthorised duplication of software. This is completely

different from copying the idea behind the program in the same

way that photocopying a book differs from writing another book

on the same subject.

Usenet newsgroup: news:misc.legal.computing.

["The Software Developer's and Marketer's Legal Companion",

Gene K. Landy, 1993, AW, 0-201-62276-9].

(1994-11-16)