Programming language can't be copyrighted: EU court
The EU's advocate general Yves Bot says programming languages -- different digital vocabularies such as HTML and Java used to make a computer perform certain tasks -- should be compared to the language used by a novelist.
A computer programming language cannot be protected by copyright, the adviser to the EU's top court said on Tuesday in an opinion that could affect the competitive IT industry.
Advocate general Yves Bot argued that programming languages -- different digital vocabularies such as HTML and Java used to make a computer perform certain tasks -- should be compared to the language used by a novelist.
The functionalities of a computer programme should also not be eligible for copyright, Bot said, adding that they are the equivalent of ideas and that protecting them would "amount to making it possible to monopolise ideas."
The advocate general's opinions are not binding but the Luxembourg-based European Union Court of Justice follows his advice in 80 percent of cases.
The opinion arises from a case pitting North Carolina-based SAS Institute, which provides business analytics software and services, against British software firm World Programming Ltd.
SAS launched a complaint in Britain against WPL after the US company created a product that can execute programmes written in SAS language.
The High Court of Justice in Britain asked the EU judges to issue a preliminary ruling to clarify the scope of EU legal protection for computer programmes.
"The functionalities of a computer program and the programming language cannot be protected by copyright," Bot said.
Bot said however that copyright can cover "the means for achieving the concrete expression" of the functionalities.
"The way in which formulae and algorithms are arranged -- like the style in which the computer program is written -- will be likely to reflect the authors own intellectual creation and therefore be eligible for protection," he said.
But the holder of a programme license can reproduce or translate a source code without the author's authorisation, under certain conditions, so as to ensure different elements of a programme work together, Bot said.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Need a rigid insulation material???
21 hours ago
-
magnets or EMF in car bumpers to protect from fender bender
May 26, 2012
-
length of wire in a coil of known dimensions?
May 25, 2012
-
India Engineering Powerhouse
May 25, 2012
-
electromagnet core dereference between hard and soft iron
May 25, 2012
-
Measuring water pressure in an open tank
May 24, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Browser wars flare in mobile space
The browser wars are heating up again, but this time the fight is for dominance of the mobile Internet.
14 hours ago |
5 / 5 (2) |
3
Probability of contamination from severe nuclear reactor accidents is higher than expected: study
Catastrophic nuclear accidents such as the core meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima are more likely to happen than previously assumed. Based on the operating hours of all civil nuclear reactors and the number ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
3.6 / 5 (25) |
56
|
HyperSolar shows dirty water no barrier to power world
(Phys.org) -- The Santa Barbara, California, company, HyperSolar, is set to transparently share the ups and downs of its research experiences toward the company’s ultimate vision, successfully producing ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 24, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
17
|
SpotterRF debuts Radar Backpack Kit (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) -- SpotterRF has announced a special radar backpack kit designed to enhance situational awareness for soldiers on the ground. The company says its special radar is designed for warfighters as part ...
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
May 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (5) |
13
|
Tesla to launch electric sedan in US on June 22
Tesla Motors said Tuesday it would begin deliveries of "the world's first premium electric sedan" on June 22, slightly ahead of schedule.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
18
Stunning image of smallest possible five-ringed structure
Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure – about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair – and you'll probably recognise its shape.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
if anybody can correct me please do, I want to get this straight as well :)
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: 2.5 / 5 (2)
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (6)
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Hmm... perhaps not... though I do know that to get information about certain file formats you have to pay the owner, such as Telcordia's SR4731 which I am dealing with right now at work.
Though, in your analogy, I think the file format details are closer to the award winning sauce than the jar...
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
However, the program itself CAN be copyrighted, just as a novel or song, because it's a unique arrangement of ideas and expressions.
This could stop people, at least in Europe, from protecting basic ideas, the suing others regardless of how they accomplish that idea.
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: 0.7 / 5 (48)
Like your worldview juxtaposed against your opinions on software piracy?
Taxes are theft but piracy isn't? Get a dictionary.
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
I have no idea what you are talking about. I never said taxes are theft and I never said that all forms of piracy are not.
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
IMO problem is rather in definition of patent protection, rather in specification of its subject. For example, the income of patent office or lawyers shouldn't be dependent on the number of patent applications issued or judged.
Nov 29, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
For example the emissions trading virtualizes the main purpose of carbon tax, i.e. the providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants, the collection of money into introduction of green-house gases free technologies in particular.
Instead of it, the rich companies of western word are sponsoring the introduction of older fossil carbon technologies at the less developed countries and nothing forces them to limit their own production of green-house gases.
The patent trading, i.e. the transfer of patent rights to another subjects has the same effect - it negates the whole meaning of patents. The patents are supposed to protect the authors of new ideas, not their dealers.
Nov 30, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Nov 30, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
A programming language itself is just syntax. It's a book of rules, not a program. You can't "run" a programming language any more than you can "run" a dictionary and a grammar book.
The program is the interpreter or compiler that turns it into machine code. An implementation of a programming language is protected by copyright, just like the grammar book or a dictionary is, but if someone makes a different implementation based on the same idea, that can't be, because it would be monopolizing ideas.
It would be like saying nobody else can use the "PRINT" command in their programming language because Microsoft has a copyright on BASIC.
Nov 30, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Dec 01, 2011
Rank: 0 / 5 (23)
There is no concept of execution states in a file format. Neither are their looping constructs or conditional evaluation, variables, or expressions.
If one included such things in a "file format" then that "file format" would not be a "file format" but a scripting language.
Dec 01, 2011
Rank: 0 / 5 (23)
In PL/1,PLC they use "put skip list" in place of "print"
A particularly horrible language.
Dec 02, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
The .GIF format was not protected by copyright. It was protected by a patent on the compression algorithm used within the format.
Dec 02, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
This ruling denies copyright protection for the syntax (and other rules, such as scoping, data type interpretations, and so on, I presume).
However, it preserves copyright protection for *implementations* of a given language. For example the Microsoft C compiler may be protected by a copyright, the Sun C compiler may be protected by a copyright, ..., but the language itself cannot be copyrighted.
Also keep in mind that you can protect a piece of software using patents, copyrights, or trade-secrets.
Of course, IANAL.
Dec 03, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Dec 03, 2011
Rank: 0 / 5 (23)
Still other computer languages are tokenized to reduce string searches, but not compiled. GW basic, and the original Microsoft basics were like that. To some a great degree Java is tokenized. But what happens with Java is that it is compiled to a fictional target CPU, and then those opcodes are either parsed or then Just In Time (JIT) compiled into native opcodes on the target machine.
The Microsoft dot net languages are similar - compiled to target a virtual CPU and then JIT compiled to the target CPU at execution.
Some language environments like Java Script started being a non p-code interpreted scripting language but have turned into a monstrosity where portions of scripted code may be compiled or p-code interpreted by the run time environment.
Dec 03, 2011
Rank: 0 / 5 (23)
There are well over 10,000 computer languages already written.
The world doesn't need any more of them.
Virtually all of them should go right down the memory hole and into the great bit bucket in the sky.