By using laws such as copyright, the owners of software companies seek, however unsuccessfully, to prevent the unauthorised duplication of their programs. But the legal framework of intellectual property rights which copyright is based on was developed in the age of printing more than 500 years ago. With the penetration of digital technology into every aspect of society, these laws have been severely undermined and rendered virtually obsolete. There is fierce debate within the corporate world and the courts over which laws, copyright or patent, apply to computer software, and to what extent they protect the individual or company which produces a program. Mega-corporations are battling the issue out in a global scramble for markets and profits.
Billions are at stake in the outcome of the legal controversy.
The two most common types of intellectual property are patent and copyright. Patent is the right to make, use or sell a particular application of an idea. A patent does not mean the right to own the principles upon which an invention is based but the novel, non-obvious and useful application of those principles. Similarly, copyright is the right to make copies of a particular expression of an idea. A copyright does not give an author ownership of the subject matter, but rather, his particular way of explaining this material.