Software law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted by Wikipedia on 1/09/07
Software law
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Software law refers the to legal remedies available to
protect software-based assets. 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 recipes.
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.
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