Copyright software
In order to understand how to protect your software from others stealing your ideas, you need to understand the legal term, ‘Copyright’.
Copyright is a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation. - Wikipedia.
If you think that sounds complicated, it is only because of the silly terms like “exclusive rights” and “intellectual property”. I will refer you to two more sources - both related to copyrighting software.
- An excellent article which should teach you everything you need to know on the topic - download it!
- Wikipedia on software copyright
Below, I will summarize what you should have learned from the above articles. If your are still to look at them, no worries! what is written below should be more than enough for your software copyright needs.
What is copyright?
Copyright is the legal protection which you as the software programmer have over the software you have made. When you have this legal protection, you have become a ‘copyright holder’.
What exactly is a copyright holder?
Copyright holder is someone who has complete control over how his/her software is used by others. I.e. you have ‘Exclusive rights’ to the product. Exactly what rights are we talking about? It provides you the right to distribute (including selling) your software in any which way you please. You have the right to limit exactly what other people can and cannot do with your software. Examples include…
• produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (including, typically, electronic copies)
• import or export the work
• create derivative works (works that adapt the original work)
• perform or display the work publicly
• sell or assign these rights to others
• transmit or display by radio or video
• prohibit certain people from doing certain things (e.g. registering users from using your software on more than one machines)
Do I have to do anything to become a copyright holder?
When you have independently produced a software, you automatically hold the copyright to that software. By independently, we mean that the software was produced by yourself for your own purpose (not for someone else who may not have granted you the copyrights to the software, e.g. if you work for Microsoft, and you are producing the code for them then most likely, you don’t own the copyright).
So I hold the copyright, but is my software actually protected from misuse?
Even if you legally own the Copyright to your software, it is important to realise that if someone steals your ideas and you wish to take legal action, i.e. make them pay for what they have stolen, you will have to provide convincing evidence that you were indeed the original owner of the software and that you had outlined exactly how your software can and can not be used. How do you go about doing this?
- Register your work with the Copyright Office of your country. A painless process but with a small cost (around $50). To understand how to do it go to the following sites - UK, USA. Once you go onto that site, email or phone the help desk with the specific question, ‘how do I copyright protect my own software?’.
- It is likely that you will need to submit your software code.
- Doing this will give you a peace of mind
- Should a legal dispute arise from someone misusing your software, registering your product before release will save you money and time.
But I don’t want to invest money/register to obtain a copyright!
Remember that even if you do not register your software with the Copyright Office, you can still put the copyright notice on your software.
If you feel that your software has little value or your are not too worried about your design/ideas being used without consent, then you may just want to place a copyright notice on the license section without registering. If you do this, you must be aware that should you feel your software has been copied/misused in one way or another, you may have little legal protection and that defending your claim may be costly business.
Reasons why you should register your software if you feel it have some value/or you would get upset if your idea is stolen:
- Registration allows you to sue infringers in the court. If your need to register in a rush, this will cost you significantly more.
- Registration Gets You Statutory Damages and your attorney’s fees and court costs
- You may be able to avoid the courts altogether because the infringer may choose to negotiate out of court
Should I really be worried about protecting my software?
This section may have been more appropriate at the top but I did want you to read the above first, just in order to help you understand what we are dealing with.
Like I said at the start, when someone makes something, they automatically become worried about others stealing their ideas… but think of it another way. You are a software developer. With little doubt, you have come across many ideas you have liked and could have easily added to your own software and in theory, sold to make money. Have you done this? Unlikely. Also, it is very unlikely that your idea is truly original. I would seriously urge you to avoid a certain degree of paranoia associated with making a new software.
That’s not to say you should not pay to register your product with the Copyright Office. All I am saying is that your should be realistic… if your software is something simple, sells for a low cost, not truly original and perhaps easy to copy, you may not want to spend any money at all. If on the other hand, it is original and of value to people, you should definitely get it protected, even of its not of a great cost.
Now that you understand what copyright is and what it means for you, you are ready to produce the license agreement.
