Mr Justice Arnold formed his judgment after considering the way the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had answered questions he had posed it. He had sought guidance on how to interpret EU copyright laws laid out in the Computer Programs Directive when determining whether or not WPL had committed copyright infringement.
The judge had already determined that WPL was guilty of infringing SAS' copyright by reproducing a substantial part of SAS' user manuals in its own manual to accompany its rival software – a judgment he reiterated in his latest ruling.
Under the Computer Programs Directive copyright protection is given to "the expression in any form of a computer program" but does not apply to "ideas and principles which underlie any element of a computer program, including those which underlie its interfaces".
Read full history: https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2013/january/computer-programming-languages-should-not-be-viewed-as-copyrightable-says-high-court-judge/
Last modified on Tuesday, 29 January 2013 12:16