How will the scope of protection afforded to computer software be defined?

摘要

In its preliminary decision the High Court for England and Wales ruled that emulating the functionality of a computer program does not constitute copyright infringement. This affirms the current prevailing view of the British Courts on the interpretation of the EU Software Directive. However, the Court referred several questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) that seek clarification on how both the Software Directive and the Information Society Directive are to be interpreted in order to define the scope of protection available to computer software.