A Study On The Computer Software Copyright Protection

With the development of high technology, more and more digital products are pouring into the market, and the whole society has gone into the information period. The development of information and technological industry especially displays on the computer software. As the intellectual result of human's creativity, the computer software is one of the major technological basis of modern society. The autologous character of computer software makes it easy to endanger itself of the copy and threaten itself of the pirated copy, so more and more attention is paid to its protection.With the development of computer software, the increase of technology and the deepening as well as the breakthrough, although the field of the theory and some countries use the mode of commercial secret's patent law and copyright law, almost all countries use copyright as the major method to protect computer software.(Trips Agreement), Article 10, item 1, definitely formulates: Computer programs, whether in source or object code, shall be protected as literary works under the Berne Convention (1971). Nowadays, it can be said that copyright law is the most common method to protect computer software all over the world.This article makes researches and analysis of the related legal theories on the software copyright protection, demonstrates the feasibility of computer software copyright protection, elaborates on the content of computer software copyright protection in China based on a comparative study of the international means of protecting the computer software copyright, and proposes suggestions in this regard. The article is composed of four chapters. Chapter 1 is an overview of computer software which makes analysis and definition of some concepts and characteristics connected with software. Chapter 2 makes comparison of several means of software protection and proposes the advantages of copyright protection over other legal protections. Chapter 3 talks about the international practice of computer software copyright protection. It introduces the international laws on computer software copyright, compares and analyzes the legal stipulations and judicial practices of US, Europe and Japan on software copyright, and points out their advantages that China can learn from. Chapter 4 make analysis of the current status of software copyright protection in China and try to give suggestions to tackle the existing problems. After a full introduction of software protection by Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, it proposes some suggestions to improve the protection in this regard.The author uses the methods of historical analysis, comparison analysis, etc, borrows ideas from advanced experiences abroad, relatively roundly proves the protection of computer software by combining with our situation.