In order to further ensure that the trade secrets are protected, is depositing of computer program in object code permissible?
By the recent amendments in the Copyright Act, a “Computer program” means a set of instructions expressed in words, codes, schemes or any other form, including a machine readable medium, capable of causing a computer to perform a particular task or achieve a particular result. The amendment, although enlarges the meaning of a computer program, it is still not very clear as to whether it includes both object code and source code. However, keeping in mind the proclaimed object of the amendment, presumably the benefit of the Copyright Act will be available to both. As per experts’ opinion, since it is easier to determine from source code whether the deposit represents the copyrightable material, deposit of object code may be possible but registration presumably would be accepted pending assurance that the code does represent copyrightable material. Procedures for these do not exist at present with the Copyright Office.
