Volume 9 Issue 2

Current Problems in the Copyright Act Regarding Computer Software

CRAIG ANTHONY VERNON*

The public interest in encouraging new developments in computer software are not advanced by the operation of Australia’s copyright laws with respect to computer programs. Under those laws, programs are treated as literature. However, unlike other works of literature, the copyright owner of programs is not under an obligation to deposit a copy of the program with the National library.

This combined with the industry practice of only selling the object code, not the source code and standard licensing agreements binding on software users, which prohibit them from decompiling the object code back into the source code, enables the owner of the software copyright to deny the public access to the content of the program as distinct from the right to use it and hence to protect the ideas embedded in the code as well as the way in which they are expressed. By protecting the ideas as well as the way in which they are expressed, the law is protecting software copyright owners from competition from software developers who may develop different programs able to perform the same functions. This is not in the public interest as it gives the owners of the copyright a monopoly and discourages new developments.

An analysis of the cases shows that the courts cannot be relied on to protect the public interest in this area by guaranteeing the public’s right to fair use of copyrighted software. Instead legislation is needed to protect the public right to fair use by requiring that copyright owners have a duty to deposit both the source and object codes in an easily readable form, to give the public rights of fair use in copyright software and to ensure that copyright owners are not given ownership of the ideas expressed in copyright software as well as the way in which those ideas are expressed.