Copyright protection of computer programs – Polish regulation and its European Union model in light of judgments of the Court of Justice

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the main aspects of copyright protection of computer programs. First the authoress presents the legal and economic circumstances of this model of computer programs protection, which led to the adoption of Directive 91/250/EEC (now in its consolidated version contained in Directive 2009/24/EC). Next she analyses the provisions of the Polish copyright law, pointing out that the primary version of Polish copyright law of 1994 was based on the provisions of the above mentioned EEC Directive. Hence Polish copyright law regards a computer program as work defined in relevant provisions of copyright law. Consequently, special focus in the paper is put of the subject and the scope of copyright protection. Further in the paper, the economic rights to a computer program are characterised, followed by subsequent restrictions of these rights, and decompilation in particular. The overall analysis includes legal interpretation of the provisions of Directive 91/250/EEC (or Directive 2009/24/EC of the CJEU in the following judgments: C-393/09 – Bezpečnostni softwarová asociace, C-406/10 SAS – Institute Inc. and C-128/11 – UsedSoft GmbH.