ABA Family Legal Guide

Computer Law

Computer Copyright and Trademark Issues

Copying Software and Downloading Entertainment

Why is software copyrighted?

Software is a product that costs money to produce, just like literary works (such as books, poems, and articles), movies, records, and TV shows. The producers of this intellectual property are just as entitled to payment as the producers of cars, food, and shelter. The fact that there is no direct cost to the producer if someone makes an illegal copy of the software does not change this legal and moral fact. (There are indirect costs to unauthorized copying, starting with the lost revenue to the developer or owner.) The fact that "everyone does it," of course, is also of no moral or legal consequence.