What Are The Responsibilities of Software Copyright?

Nowadays, many software companies and developers safeguard their programmes, software from Copyright Infringement, using Software Copyright. Copyright is the legal protection to the makers or inventors of artistic, dramatic, literary, and musical works by the law. It also consists of protection for cinematographic films and sound recording. As the Computer software includes a set of commands or instructions, it comes under the category of literary work. Further, as per the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, Section 2 (O), you can register computer software, programs, mobile applications for Copyrights. Scroll down to check the responsibilities of Software Copyright.

What are the Different Types of Software Licenses in India?

The penalties for the infringement of Copyright licenses depend on the type of Software license you have obtained. There are two different types of software licenses:

1. Open and Free Source Code Licenses: The open-source code licenses permit the end-user to edit, view and share (up to a limited extent) the software and its coding without any charges. Moreover, it is further divides into three different categories, and you can check the same below:

• Permissive Licenses: Such licenses include minimum requirements about how the software alternation or sharing. It is also called by other names as Apache Style or BSD Style. For instance, permissive licenses are MPL License, MIT License.
• Public Domain: Public Domain is the most forgiving type of software license. When your software is under the public domain, an end-user can use, view and edit the software without any limitations. Some instances of public domain software Copyrights are I2P, SQlite, CERNhttpd.
• Copyleft Licenses: Such licenses permit you to view, edit or amend the licensed code and share it under the actual software Copyright license. Moreover, Copyleft Software Copyright examples are AGPL, GPL Licenses, and CC-BY-SA.

2. Closed Source Code Licenses: This type of software licenses are generally sold and brought. They don’t permit any alterations, distributions, edits of the software or program and they are also known as Proprietary Licenses. Shareware Licenses also comes under the category of Closed Source Code Licenses. It permits you to download the licensed software or program for a limited time of period, and if you like the product, you can buy a copy of the licensed software or program.

Software Copyright Responsibilities

• The Software Copyright^[1] certifies, safeguard the work (in the form of program, software code, graphic design) of a developer. However, the Copyright Act cannot safeguard facts, idea, techniques of implementation. The responsibility of Software Copyright is to safeguard how you execute, express those thoughts or ideas to bring out some result.
• Some allow you to use a fixed number of devices or the code with a fee. Further, it is the responsibility of the Software Copyright to observe the allowable number of devices that are using the software.
• Supervising the duration and territory (including license validity) of the software usage.
• The end-user usually pays the rental for the use of the software code however cannot own the original code when the software is licensed. When you have a valid license to use the source code, it will impose some regulations to use the software.
• Moreover, Software Copyright is accountable for the technology transfer in the right way.
• Additional, avoidance of misuse of source code, software, and the program is the responsibility of copyrighted software.

How Does a Software Copyright Work?

Copyright uses by various software companies and developers to safeguard from illegal usage, copy, sharing of their software. The owner of Copyright Registration can appeal for legal and technological actions to prevent and punish Copyright Infringement. Alteration or reuse of license software can be done by prior consent, paying the royalties (if needed) to the Software owner. Additional, the process of licensing needs a copy of the source code, program. It is beneficial for Software validation.

Some Tips to Prevent Copyright Infringement

• For website applications of programmes and software, the source code has a license or authority. Moreover, the announcement of the Copyright must get attach to the headers of all source code and connect the files to avoid infringement.
• Hence, the use of identity-based licensing makes sure about the end-users.
• In case there is no direct copying of code, it’s hard to prove that copying is complete. Further, such conditions always consist of an unnecessary code or program. Additional, while unauthorised copying of software takes place, the unnecessary code also gets copying & so infringement can have the deduction.

Conclusion

From the above, we conclude that how vital it is to Copyright your software; even though it is not mandatory for registering or licensing the Computer Software under Copyrights, it gives lots of advantages if you get Copyright Registration of your Software. That’s the reason why it is recommendable to register under the Copyright Law.

Read our article:What are the Exceptions to the copyright protection?