ITPEC IP October 2022 Question 74

Topic: Legal AffairsAlso asked in October 2020

Among actions concerning the creation of a computer program, which of the following is a copyright violation?

a)Creating another Web page by using the source of HTML that was downloaded from the Internetb)Creating a program based on an idea that was discussed on a bulletin board on the Internetc)Creating a program to increase a company’s operational efficiency by using a program that was created during one’s school daysd)Creating a program based on a flowchart in a purchased book

Explanation

Creating another Web page by using downloaded HTML source — the HTML source of a page is a work protected by copyright, so reusing it without permission infringes.

Copyright protects a concrete expression: program code, HTML source, text and images. Being able to download or view a page's source does not grant a right to reproduce or adapt it; making a new page from it without the author's permission copies their expression. Copyright does not protect ideas, algorithms or programming languages, only the particular way they are written down.

Answer (a)

Why not others:

•(b) — an idea discussed on a bulletin board is not protected by copyright; writing your own program from it copies no one's expression
•(c) — a program you wrote in your school days is your own work, so you hold its copyright and may reuse it
•(d) — a flowchart describes an algorithm, and algorithms are not protected; a program you write from it is your own expression (copying the book's printed code would be another matter)

Key rule: Copyright protects expression, not ideas: copying someone's code or markup needs permission, implementing the same idea or algorithm in your own code does not.

Legal Affairs · AI-written, may contain errors

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