The Scope of Copyright Protection for Computer Programs
The computer industry has been extremely active in its pursuit of strong legal protection for computer programs and has secured changes to copyright law on an impressive international scale. Copyright law has been the vehicle by which the legal protection of computer programs against unauthorised copying has been afforded and, generally, computer programs are protected as literary works. Although computers have been around since the 1940s, the need for protection against copying computer programs did not arise until the wide-scale spread of computers associated with the development of mini-computers and, especially, micro-computers. ' Internationally, changes to copyright law to accommodate computer programs have been spread over a number of years and there remain many countries that have yet to take action. The United States of America was first with amending legislation in 1980 followed by Australia in 1984 and Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom in 1985. Other countries followed whilst others, such as the Netherlands, perceived their existing law to be satisfactory on this count and others commissioned preliminary studies.2 Arguments for strong protection of computer programs appear at f1rst sight to be reasonable, especially considering the desirability of attracting investment and stimulating innovation in new technology. However, the computer industry is now split over issues relating to the scope of protection, for example, whether basic ideas and algorithms should be protected and the advisabilit of permitting reverse analysis of computer programs to assist in the development of inter-operable systems which will interface with or replace existing computer programs. The European Commission is presently grappling with these issues in its attempt to product a directive aimed at harmonising the legal protection of computer programs within the European Communities.3 In the United Kingdom, computer programs are protected by copyright as literary works by subsection 3(1)(b) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.4 By section I of the Act, copyright subsists in a computer program if it is original and