Software Protection in the European Union and France, Part 1
Software is protected by copyright in the European Union: computer software is protected as literary work. One of the significant rights granted to the owner of copyright in a work is the exclusive right to reproduce the work, or any substantial part of the work, in any material form.
For example, the owner of copyright of computer software has the right to prevent others from copying of the software, or any substantial part of it, whether the infringer makes the infringing copy by transferring the software to a floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM, or by printing out a hard copy of the software source code. The software is protected by a specific set of rules stated by the Directive. Some of its elements are protected by the classic copyright, such as documentation. The regime of protection is heterogeneous, some elements being protected by copyright and others by the software specific regulation.
