What elements of software are protected by copyright?
Copyright only protects certain aspects of software. It protects the underlying code, both the source code and object code, against unauthorized copying and distribution. It will also protect some of the external elements in a program, such as any music, pictures or text which appear on the screen, as well as some of the elements of the user interface. However, because copyright doesn’t protect ideas, only the expression of ideas, it won’t protect the concept of a program. So anyone is free to produce a similar program as yours, provided they don’t copy the source code. In addition, copyright may not protect some of the functional elements of a program, such as having a print function, or commonly used elements where it is difficult to say who the original author was. There are also some grey areas, such as the user interface, the ‘look and feel’ of a program, the internal structure and programming methodologies. The case law in this area is uncertain so you may not get protection for
