Copyright

- Is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the
right to copy, distribute and adapt the work.
- Copyright protects the physical expression of ideas.
- Copyright is a property right and can be sold or transferred to others.

Software

- Is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions telling a
computer what to do and how to do it.

Software Copyright

- Is the relatively latest extension of copyright law to machine-readable software.

- Is commonly used by proprietary software companies to prevent the unauthorized copying of
their software.

Machine-readable medium

- Is a medium capable of storing data in a machine-readable format that can be accessed by

an automated sensing device and capable of being turned into (practically in every case)
some form of binary. comp

Proprietary software

- Is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder.

- The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, but restricted
from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.

Open-souce license

- Is a copyrigth license for computer software that makes the source code available for
everyone to use.
- This allows end users to review and modify the source code for their own customization
and/or troubleshooting needs.
- Open source licenses are also commonly free, allowing for modification, redistribution, and
commercial use without having to pay the original author.

Copyleft

- Is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right
to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be
preserved in modified versions of the work.
What does software copyright protect?

- Copyright protects only the computer program itself, and not the ideas behind the program.
- It is perfectly permissible to take a computer program written by someone else, and write
another that does the same thing.
- The permission of the rights owner is needed in order to run, copy, modify or distribute the
software.

Who owns the rights?

- The programmer who writes the program owns the rights. Where there is more than one
programmer, the Directive provides for co-ownership.
- There is one major exception: where the programmer creates the program in the course of
employment, the employer owns the rights, unless there is a contrary agreement between the
programmer and the employer.
- The rights are freely assignable, for example, if I pay a self-employed programmer to write a
program for me, it can be put in our contract that I will be entitled to the rights.

Exceptions to software copyright

The Directive states that if you have acquired a computer program then:

- You are entitled to use it for its intended purpose.

- You are allowed to correct errors in the program. (However, if you only possess the object
code of the program, you must make corrections while the program remains in that form - you
are not permitted to decompile it, i.e. convert it into source code form, in order to make error
correction easier.)
- You are allowed to make a back-up copy of the program - that is to say, a spare copy, in case
the original is erased or damaged by accident.
- You are entitled to study and test the program in order to discover how it works.

Infringement

-A violation, as of a law, regulation, or agreement; a breach.

Software Infringement

This is the act most people refer to as software piracy software infringement refers to the illegal
copying, sale or distribution of a given piece of patented software. It is a form of interference with
intellectual property rights. Since most software is patented, software infringement is generally
a violation of patent law.

refers only to unauthorized sales and copies. If a person buys a copy of a  software program, decides he
does not like it, uninstalls it and sells the original copies of the disc,that does not
constitute software infringement since the manufacturer was paid for the software item and no theft or
unauthorized copying or distribution took place. On the other hand, if the individual allowed others
to download the software from his computer or made copies of the discs and distributed them, this would
be an example of software infringement.

CASES IN THE PHILIPPINES

 Creating a copy and or selling it. This is the act most people refer to as software piracy. This is
copyright infringement in most countries and is unlikely to be fair use or fair dealing if the work remains
commercially available.
 Creating a copy and giving it to someone else. This constitutes copyright infringement in most
jurisdictions. It is not infringing under specific circumstances such as fair use and fair dealing. In some
countries, such as Israel, creating a copy is completely legal, as long as it was done from non-profit
intentions and for education purposes.
 Creating a copy to serve as a backup. This is seen as a fundamental right of the software-buyer
in some countries, e.g., Germany, Spain, Brazil and Philippines. It can be infringement, depending on the
laws and the case law interpretations of those laws, currently undergoing changes in many countries.
However here in phil and in US, it clear that this is not copyright infringement..
 Bulletin Board Sharing/Internet Piracy-states that this infringement occurs when System
Operators shares (electronic transfer) copyrighted materials on bulletin boards or the internet for users to
download.

Copyright infringement of software is extremely common in Mexico, China, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil,
United States, Zimbabwe, and several other parts of the world where it operates without restraint.
However it is illegal and enforced in most western countries. Most countries have laws regarding
copyright infringement of software but are poorly enforced.

HOW TO AVOID BREAKING THE LAW?

Buy and use only original software – it’s as simple as that.

However, if you follow these guidelines you are unlikely to break the law.*

 Do not make more than one copy of the program for back-up purposes.
 Do not load the software onto a server.
 Do not let someone borrow your software

HOW TO KNOW IF IT IS A GENUINE COPY:

is not always easy to tell if a particular copy is genuine or not. Many counterfeit

packaged products are designed to look identical to that of the original manufacturer’s

products. Some indicators that a program may be a counterfeit copy are:

· The price is “too good to be true”.

· The program is on a compilation CD-ROM – that is, a CD-ROM

containing a large number of programs, from a variety of different

software developers.

· The CD-ROM is of gold color.

· The product is being sold in only a shrink-wrapped plastic CD-ROM case.

· There is no retail packaging.

· You do not receive a license agreement, registration card or manuals with

the program.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

-Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works,
and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

2 CATEGORIES OF IP:

 Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and
geographic indications of source.
 Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films,
musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and
architectural designs.

WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS?

- The intellectual property rights definition gives the creator or holder exclusive rights to the
intellectual property for varying lengths of time, depending upon the type of intellectual property.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Philippine government has made it a State policy to protect and promote intellectual property rights.
This policy was enshrined both in the 1973 Constitution which provides that “the exclusive right to
inventions, writings and artistic creations shall be secured to inventors, authors, and artists for a limited
period” and in the 1987 Constitution which explicitly mandates that the State shall protect intellectual
property.

WHAT ARE THE LAWS?

The first laws protecting intellectual property rights were enacted in the Philippines in 1947, to wit:

Republic Act No. 165 otherwise known as “An Act Creating a Patent Office, Prescribing its Powers and
Duties, Regulating the Issuance of Patents and Appropriating Funds Therefor”.

Republic Act No. 166 otherwise known as “An Act to Provide for the Registration and Protection of Trade
Marks, Trade Names and Service Marks, Defining Unfair Competition and False Marking and Providing
Remedies Against the Same, and for other Purposes”.

Subsequent to the foregoing, additional laws were enacted and issuances promulgated to further promote
and protect intellectual property rights, to wit:

Republic Act No. 422 transferring the examination of copyright applications to the Bureau of Public
Libraries.

Republic Act No. 5434 providing for a uniform procedure for appeals from the decision of quasi-judicial
officers including the Director of Patents.
Administrative Order No. 94 [November 20, 1967] creating a committee to review the Philippine patent
system and recommend amendatory laws to further upgrade it.

Republic Act No. 8293 otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines was enacted
and signed into law in 1997. It took effect on January 1, 1998.

Republic Act No. 8293

Under the new Code, “original works” are protected by the sole fact of their creation. It is not necessary
to register a work, or to do anything else to obtain the protection of the code. Furthermore, original works
are protected regardless of their content, quality, purpose, or the form of their expression.

Among other things, the Code expressly protects computer programs as literary works. The Code also
protects the copyright in the manuals and packaging, which accompany the software.

Some notable points about the new law are:

· It expressly protects databases and tables.

· It grants an exclusive rental right to the copyright owner.

· It recognizes and expands the protection of an author’s “moral rights”.

· It penalizes the possession of infringing software for the purposes of sale.