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What is the copyright protection of software?
1. As the object of software copyright protection, computer software, whether system software or application software, is protected by laws and regulations. A software includes a computer program and its related documents. A computer program refers to an encoded instruction sequence, or a symbolic instruction sequence or a symbolic sentence sequence that can be automatically converted into an encoded instruction sequence. The object code and source code of the program are protected by laws and regulations. Computer documents refer to written materials and charts written in natural or formal languages, which are used to describe the content, composition, design, functional specifications, development, test results and usage of programs, such as program design instructions, flow charts, user manuals, etc.

The necessary condition of software protection is that it must be independently developed by developers and fixed on some tangible object (such as tape, film, etc.). ) Copyright laws and regulations protect the expression of ideas in works. As for the ideas in the works, they are not protected by laws and regulations. The copyright protection of software cannot extend to the ideas, concepts, discoveries, principles, algorithms, processing procedures and operating methods used in developing software.

Second, the scope of software copyright protection

1. A computer program refers to a coded instruction sequence that can be executed by a computer or other equipment with information processing capability in order to obtain a certain result, or a symbolic instruction sequence or a symbolic statement sequence that can be automatically converted into a coded instruction sequence. The source program and the target program of the same computer program are the same work.

2. Documentation: written materials and charts used to describe the content, composition, design, function specification, development, test results and use of the program. Such as program design instructions, flow charts, user manuals, etc.

3. Computer software: a natural person, legal person or other organization that enjoys the software copyright.

4. The protection of computer software copyright does not extend to the ideas, processing procedures, operation methods or mathematical concepts used in developing software.

Legal basis: Article 7 of the Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software, the software applied for registration should be independently developed, or the original software should be modified with the permission of the original copyright owner, which has important improvement in function or performance. Article 8 When registering the copyright of the software jointly developed, the copyright owner may determine a copyright owner as his representative through consultation. If the copyright owners cannot reach an agreement through consultation, any copyright owner may apply for registration without harming the interests of other copyright owners, but the other copyright owners shall be indicated.

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