The chapter describes the application development process and the role of methodologies, models and tools. It compares and contrasts programming language generations and explains the function and operation of program translation software and integrated application development software.
Copyrighting Source
Code
Many programmers and software developers wonder what the
requirements for copyrighting their programs are and does the government get to
see the whole source code for the program. Source code is the instructions or
statements in a high level programming language that form the basis of the
particular program that is being developed.
For entirely new programs the U.S. Copyright Office requires
the following:
First 25 and last 25 pages of
source code with portions
containing trade secrets blocked
out, or
• First 10 and last 10 pages of
source code alone, with no
blocked out portions, or
• First 25 and last 25 pages of
object code plus any 10 or
more consecutive pages of source
code, with no blockedout
portions, or
• For programs 50 pages or less in
length, entire source
code
with trade secret portions blocked out
For revised programs the U.S. Copyright Office requires the
following:
If the revisions are present
in the first 25 and last 25 pages,
any one of the four options above,
as appropriate, or if the
revisions are not present in the
first 25 and the last 25 pages:
• 20 pages of source code containing
the revisions with no
blocked out portions, or
• any 50 pages of source code
containing the revisions with
some
portions blocked out
note:
Whenever portions of code are
blocked out, the following
requirements
must be met:
1.
the blocked out portions must be proportionately less than the
material
remaining; and
2.
the visible portion must represent an appreciable amount of
original
computer code.
So what does the
Copyright Office say about copyrighting websites?
Here’s their
answer:
note:
Registration of html or other
formatting code for a
website
does not automatically cover any visible or audible
copyrightable
elements that are generated by the code. To
register
those portions of an online work, the entire copyrightable
content
must be deposited. It is possible to register the
computer
program together with the online work, but the
deposit
requirements for both the program and the online
work
must be fulfilled. See Circular 66, Copyright
Registration
for
Online Works, for important information on the
required
deposit
and how to complete the application when registering
online
works.
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