Communications of the ACM
Programming Language Can't Be Copyrighted: Eu Court
Credit: EuroStemCell
Yves Bot, advocate general of the European Union (EU), says programming languages such as Java and HTML should be regarded the same as language used by a novelist and thus cannot be protected by copyright.
Although Bot says programming languages and the functionalities of a computer program cannot be protected by copyright, he notes that copyright can cover "the means for achieving the concrete expression" of the functionalities. "The way in which formulae and algorithms are arranged--like the style in which the computer program is written--will be likely to reflect the authors own intellectual creation and therefore be eligible for protection," Bot says.
However, Bot says that the holder of a program license can reproduce or translate a source code without the author's authorization, under certain conditions, to ensure various elements of a program work together.
Bot's opinion was given in relation to a case involving SAS Institute, which provides business analytics software and services, and software firm World Programming Ltd. The U.K.'s High Court of Justice requested EU judges to issue a preliminary ruling to clarify the scope of EU legal protection for computer programs.
From Agence France-Presse
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