Tech Law Ch.7

Intellectual Property. Copyright & Software

What is the Purpose of IP law?

To protect creators/investors, encourage innovation and reward creativity while preventing exploitation of intangible creations

What are the essential features between economic rights and moral rights in copyright law?

Economic rights = Financial Exploitation rights (copyright, publishing, distribution)

Moral Rights = Right of authorship and protection against distortion / modification

What principles was established in INFOPAQ

Even short extracts of text may be copyrighted if they reflect the author’s intellectual creation and originality

What are Art 15 + 17 of the Copyright Directive (2019) about?

Art 15 = Press publishers’ right against platforms/news aggregators

Art 18 = Platform must obtain authorisation or remove infringing uploaded content

What are the major criticism of Art 17?

It may encourage upload filters that cannot reliably distinguish infringement from lawful uses like parody, memes or criticism.

How does Directive 2009/24/EC protect software?

Software is protected as a literary work if original and representing the author’s intellectual creation > grants authorship

What elements of software are NOT protected by copyright?

Ideas, principles, functionality, programming languages and interfaces themselves are not protected

What did the SAS INSTITUTE case establish?

Software functionality and programming language are not protected expressions under copyright law; only actual code / expression is protected

Distinguish between literal and non-literal copying in software copyright

literal = direct copying of source/object code

non-literal = Copying structure, design or characterisation without exact duplication

What is “look and feel” infringement?

Software replicates the appearance / functionality of another program despite different internal code, potentially leading to litigation.

ex. Microsoft WORD vs Google DOCS

> SAS institute would argue that it is NOT bc:

functionality,

programming languages,

interfaces,

and ideas

are generally not protected.

What are “Fair dealing” or “free use” exceptions?

Exceptions allowing limited copyright use for criticism, review, parody, quotation, news reporting and temporary/private copies.

e.x. Anne Rice IWTV and Fanfictions + Using quotations or videos in newsclips

How does copyright apply to memes, fanfiction and mashups?

They may infringe copyright because substantial parts of works can be protected, though parody and criticism exceptions may apply.

What are the competing theories about ownership of AI-generated works?

Possible owners include:

• No one (public domaine)

• the AI company

• The users entering prompts (INPUT will create diff OUTPUT therefore OG)

• Joint authorship between user and AI provider

What are the requirements for trademark protection?

There must be goodwill, misrepresentation causing confusion and resulting damage. Trademarks can last indefinitely if renewed and used.

What is the sui generis database right?

An EU right protecting substantial investment in databases against extraction/reuse for 15 years, even where copyright originality is absent.