COPYRIGHT

Copyright

     Copyright, in essence, a right given to authors or creators of "works", such as books, films, or computer programs, to control the copying or other exploitation of such works. In addition to controlling the making of copies, the owner of copyright in a work has the exclusive right to control publication, performance, broadcasting and the making of adaptations of the work. In certain cases, the author, director or commissioner of a work may be entitled to exercise certain 'moral rights' which may include the right to be identified with a work and to object to distortion or unjustified treatment of work. Copyright is one of a number of intellectual property rights, such as patents, trademarks and design rights that allow the creator to exploit the work by licensing others to use it. The moment a work is created, it automatically becomes copyrighted. Examples of works include literary pieces, drawings, paintings, photographs, film, music and sound recordings and, more recently, computer software programs.

      Many people confuse copyright with physical property. Although it is referred to as an intellectual property right, it is not actually property in the same sense as the ownership of a house or car. This is because essentially copyright is a right to copy the expression of an idea rather than an unlimited property right – a copy-right. The reason for the distinction between copyright and property rights in general is that after the initial effort has been put into producing a piece of artwork or a manuscript it can be infinitely reproduced at little or no extra cost. This is very different to physical property, which will slowly wear out. Additionally, if, say, I give you a copy of the artwork, it does not diminish my own use of it – we can all have a copy without anybody losing out. Again, contrasted with physical property, if I own a car, only I can drive it, since only one person at a time can use that car.

     There was little need for copyright (or patent) protection for early computer programs. There were few computers, and most software was custom-developed for in-house applications. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that computer programs were being actively marketed by a software industry besides the computer manufacturers. Before widely-marketed software, it was easy to protect by a contract or license agreement any computer program that was being marketed.

While a contract restricted what people receiving the software could do with it, particularly limiting their further distribution of the software, it could not bind people who were not parties to the contract. A person finding a computer program on the street could do anything he or she wanted with it. Copyright law, on the other hand, provides protection for a computer program even when no contract exists.