Abstract
Unlike other forms of expression,' software was born digital, making protection against copying one of the main concerns of the software industry. Software is machine-readable code, written by humans, that gives instructions to a computer. Software can also be read by humans. Software is written in source code and then compiled into object code in order for it to be read by a computer. That code can be decompiled with the use of other programs which perform an operation to reverse the code. In 1994~ Pamela Samuelson, Randall Davis, Mitchell D. Kapor, and J. H. Reichman ended their Manifesto Concerning the Legal Protection of Computer Programs with a consideration of the developments in technology and how they would impact legislation. They considered three factors that are now defining the new· shape of software protection: advances in decompilation technology, technological means for protecting digitized works, and technologies for marketing software. The developments they foresaw have occurred. The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty ("WIPO Copyright Treaty") and its implementations, in the United States via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and in Europe via the Copyright Directive, prescribe that there must be legal remedies against the circumvention of technologically effective measures protecting the works.
Recommended Citation
Azar, Deborah
(2008)
"A Method to Protect Computer Programs: The Integration of Copyright, Trade Secrets, and Anticircumvention Measures,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 2008:
No.
4, Article 3.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2008/iss4/3