SW의 비문언적 요소의 보호에 관한 필요성과 과제

초록

Computer program works have been protected on Copyright Act since 1970s, but technical issues also have been developed and have changed the circumstances of protection of computer program works. Though these change of technical issues, Copyright act defines computer program as a set of instruction now as in ages past. So, GUI(Graphic User Interface) or SSO(Structure, Sequence and Organization) can not be protected under the definition of computer program works because Copyright Act define computer program as “a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result”. But many scholars assert non-literal element should be protected as a computer program works and US courts also sentence the non-literal element are protected as copyright works in several cases. In my opinion, the essence of computer program is not only on the instruction but also on the behavior of that computer program and SSO or interface should be protected only if the non-literal element is not bound on the idea-expression dichotomy. So, the definition of computer program works on Copyright Act should be revised so that the definition of computer program works satisfy the progressing result of computer program technologies.

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