Directive 2009/24 / EC on the legal protection of computer programs

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Directive 2009/24 / EC

Title: Directive 2009/24 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 23, 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs
Designation:
(not official) 		Computer Program Directive
Scope: EEA
Legal matter: Copyright , related rights
Basis: Article 95 of the EC Treaty
Procedure overview: European Commission
European Parliament
IPEX Wiki
Come into effect: May 25, 2009
Replaces: Directive 91/250 / EEC
To be
implemented in national law by: 		December 31, 1992
Implemented by: Germany
Second law amending copyright law
Reference: OJ L 111 of 5.5.2009, pp. 16-22
Full text Consolidated version (not official)
basic version
The regulation must have been implemented in national law.
Please note the information on the current version of legal acts of the European Union !

The Directive 2009/24 / EC (computer program) Directive, regulates the protection of computer programs and the considerable expenses associated human, technical and financial and investment, and strengthens and extends so that in all EU Member States and the EEA Member States the legal protection of computer programs.

It codifies and replaces the amended Directive 91/250 / EEC (Computer Program Directive) .

Purpose of the policy

The previous Directive 91/250 / EEC was intended to create a uniform legal framework in the European Economic Community (EEC, now European Union ). The previous directive 91/250 / EEC was a further legislative harmonization step within the framework of the EEC and with regard to a uniform European copyright law and the related property rights. This protection was extended by the Directive 2009/24 / EG and also extended to the European Economic Area .

All EU copyright directives basically serve to protect authors and to dismantle trade barriers and distortions of competition with regard to copyright, the related property rights and the free exchange of knowledge and innovation in the European internal market . With regard to the previous directive 91/250 / EEC, there was an additional reason that it was recognized as early as the late 1980s that computer technology would be a key technology for the industrial development of the community.

Subject of protection of the directive

The object of protection of Directive 2009/24 / EC and its predecessor Directive 91/250 / EEC in Article 1, para. 1 computer programs by copyright as literary works within the meaning of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic protected become. For the purposes of this guideline, the term “computer program” also includes the design material for its preparation .

Legal basis

The adoption of Directive 2009/24 / EC was based in particular on Article 95 of the EC Treaty (now Article 114 TFEU (procedural provision )).

Structure of Directive 2009/24 / EC

Directive 2009/24 / EC follows the structure in the headings from Articles 1 to 7 of the predecessor Directive 91/250 / EEC. The provisions on the term of protection in Article 8 of Directive 91/250 / EEC were not adopted in Directive 2009/24 / EC, as the term of protection of copyright and related rights was and has already been harmonized across the Union by Directive 2006/116 / EC was valid for the previous directive 91/250 / EEC.

  • Article 1 (subject of protection)
  • Article 2 (authorship of the program)
  • Article 3 (beneficiaries of protection)
  • Article 4 (actions requiring consent)
  • Article 5 (Exceptions to the acts requiring consent)
  • Article 6 (decompilation)
  • Article 7 (special protective measures)
  • Article 8 (Further application of other legislation)
  • Article 9 (communication)
  • Article 10 (repeal)
  • Article 11 (entry into force)
  • Article 12 (addressees)
  • APPENDIX I.
    • PART A (Directive repealed and amended)
    • PART B (Deadlines for transposition into national law)
  • ANNEX II (Correspondence table)

Selected provisions of Directive 2009/24 / EC

Authorship of the program

The codification of RL 91/250 / EEC in RL 2009/24 / EC has not changed anything in these provisions: According to Article 2 Paragraph 1 of RL 2009/24 / EC, the author of a computer program is the natural person, the group more natural Persons who created the program or, to the extent permitted by the legal provisions of the Member States, the legal person who is deemed to be the right holder under this legal framework. To the extent that collective works are recognized by the legislation of a Member State, the person who is considered to be the person who created the work under the legislation of the Member State is considered to be the author .

If a computer program is created by an employee in the performance of his / her tasks or according to the instructions of his employer, only the employer is entitled to exercise all economic rights to the program created in this way, provided that no other contractual agreement is made (Article 2 Paragraph 3 Directive 2009 / 24 / EG).

Beneficiaries of protection

Art 3 of Directive 2009/24 / EC literally corresponds to the previous Directive 91/250 / EEC:

All natural and legal persons are entitled to protection in accordance with the national copyright law applicable to works of literature .

Term of protection

Article 8 of Directive 91/250 / EEC on the term of protection has been repealed and is no longer included in Directive 2009/24 / EC. The term of protection, according to the previous directive 91/250 / EEC, covers the life of the author and 50 years after his death or after the death of the last living author; for computer programs published anonymously or pseudonymously or for computer programs whose author, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 1, is to be regarded as a legal person on the basis of national law, the term of protection ends 50 years after the program is first legally made available to the public. The duration of the protection begins on January 1st of the year following the aforementioned events . The term of protection is now uniformly 70 years after the death of the author (see now Directive 2006/116 / EC on the term of protection of copyright and related rights).

Retroactive effect

The provisions of Directive 2009/24 / EEC apply according to Article 1 Paragraph 4, without prejudice to any agreements and rights acquired before January 1, 1993, also to programs created before this point in time (in Directive 91/250 / EEC, Article 9 Para . 2).

Expiry

Directive 91/250 / EEC has been repealed with the enactment of Directive 2009/24 / EC " without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States with regard to the deadlines for the implementation of the directives named in Annex I Part B " (Article 10 of the Directive 2009/24 / EG and Annex I).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official long title: DIRECTIVE 2009/24 / EG OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 23, 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs (OJ EU No. L 111, 16 to 22).
  2. ↑ See recitals 7 and 8 of Directive 2009/24 / EC. According to recitals 7 and 8 of Directive 91/250 / EEC: " Computer programs " programs in any form, including those that are integrated into the hardware; This term also includes design material for the development of a computer program, provided that the type of preparatory work allows the later creation of a computer program. Qualitative or aesthetic merits of a computer program should not be used as a criterion for judging whether a program is an individual work or not .
  3. ↑ See Recital 1 of Directive 2009/24 / EC.
  4. ↑ See Recitals 2 to 6 of Directive 2009/24 / EC or Recital 1 ff of Directive 91/250 / EEC.
  5. ↑ See Recital 5 of Directive 2009/24 / EC or Recital 6 of Directive 91/250 / EEC.
  6. ↑ The European Economic Area was only founded on January 1, 1994, after the adoption of Directive 91/250 / EEC.
  7. ↑ See recitals 3 to 5 of Directive 2009/24 / EC or recitals 4 and 5 of Directive 91/250 / EEC.
  8. ↑ See Recital 3 of Directive 2009/24 / EC or Directive 91/250 / EEC.
  9. ↑ See also the correspondence table with regard to the articles in RL 2009/24 / EC and the repealed RL 91/250 / EEC in Annex II of RL 2009/24 / EC.
  10. ↑ See also the previous directive for directive 2006/116 / EC: Directive 93/98 / EEC on the harmonization of the term of protection of copyright .