Programming languages can't have copyright protection, EU court rules

IDG News Service - Europe's top court ruled Wednesday that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright.

The European Court of Justice made the decision in relation to a case brought by SAS Institute against World Programming Limited (WPL).

SAS makes data processing and statistical analysis programs. The core component of the SAS system allows users to write and run application programs written in SAS programming language. Through reference to the Learning Edition of the SAS System, which WPL acquired under a lawful license, WPL created a product that emulates much of the functionality of the SAS components, so that customers' application programs can run in the same way on WPL as on the SAS components.

Read the full article here: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226783/Programming_languages_can_t_have_copyright_protection_EU_court_rules?taxonomyId=17