Copyright for Software

If you develop your own software, it’s worth­while reg­is­ter­ing it with the U.S. Copyright Office so that you’re protected. If you don’t register and therefore can’t put the © on your work, you’re protected nonethe­less. You au­to­mat­i­cal­ly own the copyright which means no-one else can do anything with your work without first seeking per­mis­sion. But if someone does happen to infringe on your copyright, it’s your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to file a lawsuit and have a judge prevent the other party from using or sharing your creation and pay any losses you have sustained.

You cannot file a lawsuit without being reg­is­tered with the U.S. Copyright Office. If you decide to hold off on the reg­is­tra­tion to see whether an in­fringe­ment actually occurs, you’ll then have to rush though the process which will prove more expensive as 'ex­pe­dit­ed reg­is­tra­tions' costs several hundred dollars.

A reg­is­tra­tion ap­pli­ca­tion contains three elements: a completed ap­pli­ca­tion form, a filing fee, and a copy of part of the software’s source code that you want to register. Circular 61 provides in­for­ma­tion on how to complete the process. You can complete the process online on the U.S. Copyright Office’s eCO website. The ap­pli­ca­tion is straight­for­ward and asks for this basic in­for­ma­tion:

• The title of the work
• Who created the work and when
• Who owns the copyright

It costs $35-$45 for each work you want to register. You are required to send a paper or microform hard copy of the first and last 25 pages of the source code, or the entire code if the whole thing is less than 50 pages. Ensure you don’t send any portion of the code that contains sensitive in­for­ma­tion since what you send will be made available for public in­spec­tion. If the code you want to send has to contain secret in­for­ma­tion, make sure those parts are un­read­able.

It’s not just the actually copying of source code that’s protected, but also the structure, sequence, and or­ga­ni­za­tion of the computer software. This stops third parties from being able to just change the source code slightly and end up with the same outcome as with your software and not count that as copyright in­fringe­ment.

If you register your software within the first three months of pub­li­ca­tion, you could find yourself receiving between $750 and $30,000 for each of your works if they are indeed infringed upon. Sums of as much as $150,000 aren’t unusual in the cases of willful in­fringe­ment. As well as the option of fining the in­fringers, there are other remedies such as temporary and final in­junc­tion relief to make sure no other in­fringe­ment can happen in the future. The costs and attorneys’ fees are sometimes enough to make the infringer come to a set­tle­ment more quickly before the costs rise and this means you won’t have the hassle of going through the courts.

Note that copyright pro­tec­tion is only valid for the version of the software that you reg­is­tered, so every time you update the software you need to register the new version with the Copyright Office.

As well as copy­right­ing your software, you can also patent it. Patent pro­tec­tion covers even more rights including the ideas that your software covers, whereas copyright only covers the actual product. If you do decide to patent your product, you must do so within a year of com­mer­cial­iz­ing it. Since patent pro­tec­tion involves expensive and long-term pro­ce­dures, it’s worth getting legal advice before you begin. Your software must be useful, non-obvious, and novel to be con­sid­ered patentable. It’s also crucial that you are the true inventor and aren’t filing on behalf of someone.