Do copyrights do a good job of protecting the author´s interests in the item?
2007/// Filed in: Copyright Law
Copyrights grant the copyright holder exclusive rights of reproduction, preparation of derivative works, and public performance. In its current state copyright law does a decent job protecting some copyrightable works such as books, songs, and screenplays; but it still seems to be underdeveloped in other areas such as the protection of computer programs.
Since copyright protection does not extend to the underlying idea, procedure, or method of operation; other authors are free to use the same ideas and methods to create independent works. For instance, after reading a novel an author could write another novel using the same plot and as long as he doesn't copy parts of the original copyrighted work literally he will not violate copyright law. This limitation is specially significant in the case of computer programs. Consider the example of a scientist that after investing a considerable amount of time seeking a solution to a scientific problem writes a computer program that can significantly help others in a specific area. In this scenario copyrights will provide very limited IP protection. Other other people can develop their own version of the program that does the exact same thing and will not violate copyright law as long as they do not use the exact same source code. Additionally, reverse engineering is not prohibited either.
References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).
[3] Copyright Act of 1976
Since copyright protection does not extend to the underlying idea, procedure, or method of operation; other authors are free to use the same ideas and methods to create independent works. For instance, after reading a novel an author could write another novel using the same plot and as long as he doesn't copy parts of the original copyrighted work literally he will not violate copyright law. This limitation is specially significant in the case of computer programs. Consider the example of a scientist that after investing a considerable amount of time seeking a solution to a scientific problem writes a computer program that can significantly help others in a specific area. In this scenario copyrights will provide very limited IP protection. Other other people can develop their own version of the program that does the exact same thing and will not violate copyright law as long as they do not use the exact same source code. Additionally, reverse engineering is not prohibited either.
References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).
[3] Copyright Act of 1976