Computer Science Research: Software Copyright Laws

Software Copyright Laws
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Companies are increasingly developing copyright software applications, and there are protections against unlawful use of the software. Software copyright laws offer protection to developers and companies to protect the software products. Failure to protect the software means that other people can take credit for the product and even benefit financially with minimal efforts (Fishman, 2007). As such, the software copyright laws are created to allow copyright owners to make copies or grant permission for copying the software or some portions of the software. For the software businesses and owners, the software copyright laws protecting their creations when there are end users still relying on the software.
The US has strong software copyright laws that thwart software but the same cannot be said about other countries, outside North America and Europe. At other times, software codes are patentable ideas and not necessarily copyrights. At times, there is no clarity when the software is a copyright or patent especially when there is a no overlapping relationship between the intellectual properties. In any case, the definition of computer software under the US Copyright Law highlights that they are sets of instructions used by computers to give creation results and outcomes (Patterson, 2013). Nonetheless, the copyright laws are still important in protecting the software developers to ensure there is no misuse of the intellectual property. At the same time, efforts must be made to avoid monopolistic stagnation if people are to use the software to serve the intended purposes.
Poorly enforced software copyright laws may be harming the software industry and the financial position of the small industry insiders. Even as consumers understand the perils of software piracy, there are still those who share the pirated software. It has become harder to crackdown on software copyright violators where the users can share the information via the web. As such, it is through the serious enforcement of the software copyright laws that authorities can reduces the incidences of piracy, where users are deterred from violating intellectual property rights. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) issues notice risks to organizations; individuals or institutions violate software or digital rights belonging to another entity.
Software copyright laws take into consideration a work of expression rather than ideas, and when the software contains trading secrets the developers need to state the claim about the trade secret when applying for copyright registration (Fishman, 2007). Software developers who have copyrighted their software creations are unlikely to be successful...