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From: rgh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Legalities of copying software - (nf)
Message-ID: <285@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27-Aug-83 05:50:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.285
Posted: Sat Aug 27 05:50:59 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Aug-83 22:39:53 EDT
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#R:burl:-28900:inmet:16000002:000:2177
inmet!rgh    Aug 26 19:14:00 1983

    The Computing Surveys article mentioned is "Computer Software and
Copyright", by Calvin N. Mooers, in Vol. 7, No. 1, March 1975.
    Here is the abstract:

	The method of copyright, although neglected in the past, is
    a method to consider for legal protection of commercial computer
    software and programs.  Copyright is particularly directed to
    written text, and it is therefore applicable to the text form
    or listing of computer programs and software, and to all
    derivatives thereof.  When the simple formal requirements for
    copyright have been met, it immediately provides claim to
    exclusive rights in the published text.  Unauthorized copying,
    translation, performance, or making derivative versions, of a 
    copyrighted text then constitutes a copyright infringement with
    legal penalties.  Included among the things protectable by
    copyright are:  computer programs, documentation and diagrams,
    the meticulous details of a debugged system, program translation
    such as from FORTRAN to ALGOL, compiling of programs, running
    a program, software systems and their command languages,
    languages and their compilers, and the microprogramming required
    for a computer to mimic a defined instructional set.  Copyright
    may be more suitable than patent or trade secret for commercial
    protection of most typical programs and software.  Copyright of
    computer software may speed the achievement of program 
    portability, and standardization of software systems.  Utilization
    of, and acceptance of, copyright protection in the industry is
    expected to increase as computer professionals learn of its
    features and advantages.

I hasten to add:

    Copyright (C) 1975, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
    General permission to republish, but not for profit, all or
    part of this material is granted, provided that ACM's copyright
    notice is given and that reference is made to this publication,
    to its date of issue, and to the fact that reprinting privileges
    were granted by permission of the Association for Computing
    Machinery.


Randy Hudson
{harpo,cca!ima}!inmet!rgh