Everything about Software copyright

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: Software copyrightA 5-minute orientation
2. Skim a recent paper: Developer Perspectives on Licensing and Copyright Issues Arising from Generative AI for Software DevelopmentInfluential work since 2022
3. Pick up a classic book: Legal care for your softwareThe most-reprinted book on the subject
4. Read the landmark paper: Culture's Open Sources: Software, Copyright, and Cultural CritiqueCited 32 times
5. Go sideways: Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd.A closely related topic
6. Go sideways: Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc.A closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Culture's Open Sources: Software, Copyright, and Cultural Critique

  Christopher M Kelty · 2004 · Anthropological Quarterly · 32 citations

• Software copyright infringement among college students

  Eric Chiang, Djeto Assane · 2002 · Applied Economics · 24 citations

• A robust software watermarking for copyright protection

  Ibrahim Kamel, Qutaiba Albluwi · 2009 · Computers & Security · 23 citations

• Computer Software and Copyright

  Calvin N. Mooers · 1975 · ACM Computing Surveys · 20 citations

• Drawing the Boundary between Copyright and Contract: Copyright Preemption of Software License Terms

  Maureen A. O'Rourke · 1995 · Duke Law Journal · 11 citations

• Software copyright infringement

  Alistair Maughan · 1994 · Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin · 7 citations

• Chinese culture and software copyright

  Jia Lu · 2009 · New Media & Society · 4 citations

• Free software and copyright enforcement: A tool for global copyright policy?

  Ville Oksanen, Mikko Välimäki · 2006 · Knowledge, Technology & Policy · 4 citations

🆕 Influential since 2022

• Developer Perspectives on Licensing and Copyright Issues Arising from Generative AI for Software Development

  Trevor Stalnaker, Nathan Wintersgill, Oscar Chaparro · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology · 6 citations

• Copyright and firms’ own IPR protection in a software market: Monopoly versus duopoly

  Krešimir Žigić, Jiří Střelický, Michael Kúnin · 2023 · Economic Modelling · 2 citations

• A Blockchain-Based Copyright Management Scheme for Open-Source Software and Hardware Designs

  Yuhang Jin, Li Ling · 2025 · Tsinghua Science and Technology · 2 citations

• What Copyright? Whose Intellectual Property?: College Student Intellectual Property Rights and Anti-plagiarism Software

  Victoria Longfield · 2022 · Journal of Information Policy · 2 citations

• COPYRIGHT LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST SOFTWARE PIRACY VIOLATIONS FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES

  Venta Ananda Ramadhanty, Sri Astutik, Wahyu Prawesthi · 2025 · JURNAL ILMIAH ADVOKASI · 1 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• Legal care for your softwareDaniel Remer · 1982
• Licensing In LibrariesKaren Rupp-Serrano · 2005
• The tech contracts handbookDavid W. Tollen · 2010
• Interfaces on trialJonathan Band · 1995
• Interfaces on trial 2.0Jonathan Band · 2011
• PiracyAdrian Johns · 2009
• Coding FreedomE. Gabriella Coleman · 2012
• How to copyright softwareM. J. Salone · 1984

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics

• Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd. Vault Corporation v Quaid Software Ltd. 847 F.2d 255 (5th Cir. 1988) is a case heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that tested…
• Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc. Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc., 982 F.2d 693 (2d Cir. 1992) is a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second…
• White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company, 209 U.S. 1 (1908), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that manufacture…
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