European Communities (Legal Protection of Computer Programs) Regulations, 1993

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 26/1993

I, RUAIRÍ QUINN, Minister for Enterprise and Employment, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving effect to Council Directive No. 91/250/EEC on the legal protection of computer programs1 hereby make the following Regulations.

1O.J. No. L122 of 17.5.91. 1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Legal Protection of Computer Programs) Regulations, 1993.

(2) These Regulations shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 31st day of December, 1992: Provided that nothing in these Regulations shall have the effect of making or declaring any acts to be unlawful which were not unlawful at the date of their commission. 2. (1) In these Regulations:

"the Directive" means Council Directive 91/250/EEC on the legal protection of computer programs;

"computer program" shall include any design materials used for the preparation of such program.

(2) A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in the Directive, has, unless the context otherwise requires, the same meaning in these Regulations as it has in the Directive. 3. (1) Subject to paragraph (2) of this Regulation, copyright shall subsist in a computer program and the Copyright Acts, 1963 and 1987, shall apply to every original computer program as if it were a literary work and the legal protection so afforded shall apply to the expression in any form of a computer program.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1) of this Regulation, a computer program shall be protected if it is original in the sense of being the author's own intellectual creation.

(3) Ideas and principles which underlie any element of a computer program, including those which underlie its interfaces, are not protected by copyright under these Regulations. 4. Section 10 (2) of the Copyright Act, 1963 , shall not apply to computer programs made by an author in the course of his employment by the proprietor of a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical under a contract of service or apprenticeship. 5. Subject to the provisions of Regulations 6 and 7 of these Regulations, the exclusive rights of the rightholder, within the meaning of Article 2 of the Council Directive, shall include the right to do or authorize:

( a ) the permanent or temporary reproduction of a computer program by any means and in any form, in part or in whole. Insofar as loading, displaying, running...