1. What is the term of computer software copyright protection
Since 2002 in my country Article 14 of the new "Software Regulations" came into effect on January 1: "Software copyright arises from the date of completion of software development. The protection period of a natural person's software copyright is the natural person's life and 50 years after his death, ending with the natural person. December 31 of the 50th year after the death; the software is jointly developed, and ends on December 31 of the 50th year after the death of the last natural person. The protection period for software copyrights of legal persons or other organizations is 50 years, ending on December 31st of the 50th year after the software was first published, but if the software has not been published within 50 years from the date of completion of development, this regulation will no longer protect it."
The copyright legal community unanimously believes that the author's personal rights, namely the right to authorize, modify, and protect the integrity of the work, should be eternal and cannot be owned by others due to the death of the author or the transfer of other rights, even if the protection period of the work expires , personal rights will not disappear as a result.
However, property rights in copyrights are subject to protection time limits. Not only our country, but also countries around the world have strict restrictions on the protection period of property rights. It stipulates that once the protection period expires, the work will be considered the common property of human society and anyone can use it freely without legal obstruction.
2. Rights restrictions on computer software copyright
Copyright As the most common method of protecting computer software, software rights holders are given many rights, but the enjoyment of such rights is limited and the protection they receive is conditional.
(1) Limitation on the scope of rights protection
The ideas used in developing software, Process, operation method or mathematical conceptetc. are not within the scope of software protection, and the protection of software is limited to creative software that is "independently developed by the developer and has been fixed on some tangible object."
(2) Fair use of software
The principle of "fair use" is copyright law It is an important system. In the past, our country stipulated various circumstances under which fair use could be allowed. However, in practice, it was found that allowing fair use under certain circumstances was not conducive to the protection of software copyright. For example, the stipulation that software works can be copied in a small amount causes operational difficulties because of the vague "quantity". "Less" is relative, and what constitutes less cannot be clarified. This leads to some people taking advantage of this ambiguity and committing acts that constitute infringement without bearing corresponding infringement liability.
In order to effectively protect the legitimate interests of software copyright owners, the new "Software Regulations" only stipulates one situation that can be regarded as "fair use", namely Only for the purpose of learning and researching the design ideas and principles contained in the software and using the software by installing, displaying, transmitting or storing the software, you can use it without waiting for the permission of the copyright owner, and you do not need to ask the copyright owner for permission. Pay compensation.
However, the perpetrator shall not infringe other rights enjoyed by the software copyright owner or his legal successors according to law.
(3) In order to protect the rights of owners of legal copies of software, restrictions on software copyright
The owner of software copies has the following three rights to the software copies obtained through legal channels. These rights are essentially restrictions on software copyright:
First of all, the owner of a legal copy of the software can, according to his own needs, install the copy of the software into a computer or other device with information processing capabilities to run and use the copy of the software to realize its functions .
Secondly, due to the vulnerability of the fixed carrier of the software, the owner of a legal copy of the software has the right to make reasonable backups in order to prevent the software copy from being destroyed. Copies of the software, but the reasonable number should not be too many, generally 2 to 3 copies are appropriate. After use, the software copy should be properly kept, recovered or destroyed, and it should not be used for other purposes; the backup copy of the software should not be used by others in any way such as distribution, dissemination or any other way. Furthermore, once it loses ownership of the copy of the software, it must be responsible for destroying the backup copies of the software.Obligation to make copies.
Again, in order to make the software copy adapt to the actual computer application environment, or to improve the function and performance of the software copy, necessary modifications may be made to it Modifications. It is worth noting that for modified software copies, the owner of the legal copy of the software is not allowed to provide it to others without authorization in any way. Otherwise, it will constitute an infringement of the rights of the software copyright owner and must bear corresponding responsibilities.
(4). Implement national laws and regulations or national technical standards
Due to the need to implement national The development of software similar to existing software under relevant policies, laws, regulations, or national technical standards does not constitute infringement.
(5), Principle of Public Interest
For violations of the Constitution, laws, regulations, and rules , policies and software (programs) that harm social and public interests, such as computer viruses, etc., are not protected by law.
(6), Exception that end users can use unauthorized software
According to The "Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Applicable Law in the Trial of Copyright Civil Disputes" stipulates that computer software users who commercially use computer software without permission or beyond the scope of permission shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law.
It can be seen that if the end user uses unauthorized software for other than commercial purposes, he does not need to bear responsibility. This provision seems unfair to software rights holders, but the author believes that this provision plays a certain balancing role between the public interests and software copyright. The law should take into account the interests of the right holders and the public at the same time, in order to ensure the development of the computer software industry. Otherwise, the public will not buy it, and the interests of the software right holders will not be protected. Moreover, if it is stipulated that the use of unauthorized software by end users at any time constitutes infringement, there will be problems with the poor operability of the law when pursuing infringement liability, including the difficulty of obtaining evidence and the scope of the infringer being too large. Problems, etc. are also not conducive to the protection of software.
(7). Due to limited available forms and similar software
In When new software is developed, due to the limited expression options available, the new software is similar to existing software.software, will not constitute infringement. Because copyright law does not protect ideas, and in some cases, because an idea can only be expressed in a few ways, making its expression indistinguishable from creative ideas, such expression cannot be protected.
(8), reverse compilation
Reverse compilation is also called the "reverse compilation" of software. Software "reverse engineering" refers to converting the object code form of the software into a source code form that humans can read and understand through disassembly and decompilation. This method usually analyzes the computer software target program and reversely deduce its corresponding source program. It obtains the content in the software that is not protected by copyright law through reverse compilation, such as the function, organizational structure, and processing of the software. Processes, algorithms, interfaces, concepts, etc.
The editor of Legal Savior Network introduced the protection period of computer software copyright. I believe you will have a new understanding and new understanding of this aspect. In practice, copyright is divided into personal rights and property rights. Their protection periods and acquisition methods have different regulations, and they also have different requirements for inheritance. If you still have relevant questions, please feel free to consult an online lawyer on the Legal Savior Network.
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