The right to prevent copying. It is a negative right
that can be exercised by a copyright owner if he chooses. Copyright
protects the form in which an idea is expressed but not the idea per
se. Computer programs are considered to be protected under the law
of copyright as literary works in most countries that have copyright
legislation. Hence a set of instructions given to a personal
computer is given the same protection in law as a book of recipes -
the use of the recipe or the instructions is not copyright
infringement but the owner of the copyright can prevent the
unauthorized copying of the literary work. The mere taking of an
idea embodied in a copyright work (such as the use of some
algorithms discovered from studying the source code of a computer
program) is not copyright infringement (but see trade secrets). Some
computer software houses feel that the protection granted to
computer programs by the law of copyright is not sufficient (see
patents).
