Ownership of computer software and applications: the
difficulties under the Copyright Act.
If you or your business have contracted a third-party to either
create or develop
a piece of software for you, it may come as a surprise to know
that you may not actually own that source coding - even if the work
was undertaken based on your ideas, under your instruction and you
paid for it!
This could be quite a scary proposition, and a wake up call for
many business owners.
Under the
Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), the expression of an idea, rather
than the idea itself, is afforded automatic protection (unlike
other forms of
intellectual property). It therefore stands to reason that as
the 'author' of the source code, the
contractor that you engaged to write the code would be seen as
the legal owner of the code - even if the inspiration for its
development (and the funds put towards its production) came from
you.
