Four Reasons and a Paradox: The Manifest Superiority of Copyright over Sui Generis Protection of Computer Software (original) (raw)

1994, Columbia Law Review

However, the extension is imperfect, since the statute excludes from the realm of "useful articles" works "having an intrinsic utilitarian function ... merely to... convey information." 17 U.S.C. § 101 (1988). And the Manifesto authors undercut the useful article analogy with their own earlier characterization of computer programs as information products constructed from information components. See Manifesto, supra note 1, at 2335-36, 2367. 53. The term comes from the work of Professor Jerome Reichman, who has long argued for an extension of the applied art regime to utilitarian literature. See, e.g.,Jerome H. Reichman, Computer Programs as Applied Scientific Know-How: Implications of Copyright Protection for Commercialized University Research, 42 Vand. L. Rev. 639 (1989). 54. See also Dam, supra note 17, at 3-7 (rejecting functionality objection to copyright protection for software, and concluding that "the usefulness of software is an argument for, rather than against, copyright protection for software."). 55. See, e.g., Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1879) (rejecting attempt to invoke copyright protection of accounting forms in order to prevent unauthorized use of the bookkeeping system).