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Copyright of software and its screen display
Copyright is a legal protection provided to the owner of creative work for a limited period of time against third parties who may exploit this work for personal gain without the authorization of the owner. Copyrights provide legal right of ownership over creative work and innovations after its registration. However, for an innovation to register as copyright, an eligibility test has to be passed to ascertain whether the innovation meets the criteria for copyright. The innovations that belong to the following categories are eligible for test of copyright. These categories are either:
- Literary Work
- Artistic work
- Musical work
- Sound recording or cinematography
However, by nature of some innovations, it may find difficult to decide under which category they belong. One such example is software. Although, there has always been reforms in copyright laws, depending upon the concerned jurisdictions, to make software eligible for copyright. A software is a programme made from a set of commands and codes which operates a computer system and runs in accordance with the directives of the codes resulting into the customized output. Some software may be programmed differently that may produce into unique output for which a programmer may claim ownership right i.e. copyright. Hence, software can be registered as copyright.
However, there are many queries with regard to registration of software for copyright. One of the frequently asked questions is whether the output or result page can be copyrighted along with the software or shall it be copyrighted as separately. In this case, when the content or result page is dependent on the process of the software, then it cannot be copyrighted as a separate entity and is covered by the software copyright. However, in case, when the result page or output content is independent of the process of the software and the distinction of such separation is clear, the output content can be covered for copyright as an independent entity.
This difference can be explained better using an example of the Microsoft Corporation. The software used to create the spreadsheet in Microsoft office can be protected as software copyright of Microsoft office. However, in case where the spreadsheet programme can itself generate some original output without depending on the original software i.e. Microsoft office and therefore can be eligible to be covered by an independent copyright.
However, in a case where a software is used to generate pages or results such as student rank reports shall only be eligible for a single copyright protection as the student ranking report cannot be found as an independent and separate work as it is depending upon the programming of the software in order to generate the output of such kind. Therefore, in such a case, there can be only one copyright for the software which is enough for the protection of both the software and the output page.
Conclusion
The software that generates different output because of their unique and creative style of programming and coding are eligible for copyright. In cases where the output page or content is depending upon the software programme itself, such an output shall be construed as part of the copyright of such software. In cases where the output page or content is independent from the software programme and which can be distinguished from such programmes can be registered for copyright separately.