Computer Programs Directive

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EU copyright directive

title: "Computer Programs Directive" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["copyright-law-of-the-european-union", "european-union-directives", "european-union-technology-policy", "copyright-legislation", "information-technology-in-europe", "1991-in-law", "1991-in-the-european-economic-community"] description: "EU copyright directive" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Programs_Directive" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary EU copyright directive ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox EU legislation"]

Field	Value
type	Directive
number	91/250/EEC
2009/24/EC
title	Directive on the legal protection of computer programs
madeby	Council of the European Union
madeunder	Art. 100a
OJref	L122, 1991-05-17, pp. 9–13
made	14 May 1991
commenced	17 May 1991
implementation	1 January 1993//25 May 2009
CommProp	C91, 1989-04-12, p. 4
C320, 1990-12-20, p. 22
ESCOpin	C329, 1989-12-30, p. 4
ParlOpin	C231, 1990-09-17, p. 78
Reports
replaces	—
amends	—
amendedby	93/98/EEC
replacedby	Directive 2009/24/EC on the legal protection of computer programs
status	Current
::

The European Union Computer Programs Directive controls the legal protection of computer programs under the copyright law of the European Union. It was issued under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. The most recent version is Directive 2009/24/EC.

History

In Europe, the need to foster the computer software industry brought attention to the lack of adequate harmonisation among the copyright laws of the various EU nations with respect to such software. Preamble to Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 Economic pressure spurred the development of the first directive which had two goals (1) the harmonisation of the law and (2) dealing with the problems caused by the need for interoperability.

The first EU Directive on the legal protection of computer programs was Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991. It required (Art. 1) that computer programs and any associated design material be protected under copyright as literary works within the sense of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

The Directive also defined the copyright protection to be applied to computer programs: the owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to authorise (Art 4):

the temporary or permanent copying of the program, including any copying which may be necessary to load, view or run the program;
the translation, adaptation or other alteration to the program;
the distribution of the program to the public by any means, including rental, subject to the first-sale doctrine.

However, these rights are subject to certain limitations (Art. 5). The legal owner of a program is assumed to have a licence to create any copies necessary to use the program and to alter the program within its intended purpose (e.g. for error correction). The legal owner may also make a back-up copy for his or her personal use. The program may also be decompiled if this is necessary to ensure it operates with another program or device (Art. 6), but the results of the decompilation may not be used for any other purpose without infringing the copyright in the program. According to the lawyer Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz and based on recitals 10 and 15 of the Directive, the copyright exception applies also when no decompilation is needed, i.e. when open source code is publicly available.

The duration of the copyright was originally fixed at the life of the author plus fifty years (Art. 8), in accordance with the Berne Convention standard for literary works (Art. 7.1 Berne Convention). This has since been prolonged to the life of the author plus seventy years by the 1993 Copyright Duration Directive (superseded but confirmed by the 2006 Copyright Term Directive).

Council Directive 91/250/EEC was formally replaced by Directive 2009/24/EC on 25 May 2009, which consolidated "the various minor amendments the original directive had received over the years".

Implementation

AT=Urheberrechtsgesetznovelle 1993, BGBl. No. 93/1993, p. 1166 | BE=Law of 30.06.1994 (French), Law of 30.06.1994 (Flemish), Moniteur Belge du 17 juillet 1994, p. 19315 | CZ=Law No. 121/2000 Coll. of 7 April 2000 on Copyright, Rights Related to Copyright and on the Amendment of Certain Laws | DK=LOV nr 1010 af 19/12/1992 updated by LBK nr 1144 af 23/10/2014 |

EE=Autoriõiguse seadus (2024-10-12) |

FI=Laws Nos. 418/93 and 419/93, Finnish Official Journal of 1993-05-12, p. 415 | FR=| DE=Zweites Gesetz zur Änderung des Urheberrechtsgesetzes vom 9. Juni 1993, BGBl I p. 910 | GR=Law No. 2121/93, Official Journal A No. 25 | IE=European Communities (Legal Protection of Computer Programs) Regulations, 1993 (S.I. No. 26 of 1993) | IT=Decreto Legislativo No. 518 del 29 dicembre 1992| LT=Autortiesību likums (2000-04-06) | LI=Autorių teisių ir gretutinių teisių įstatimas N. VIII-1185 (1999-05-18) | LU=Loi du 18 avril 2001 sur les droits d'auteur, les droits voisins et les bases de données. Section 7 – Les programmes d'ordinateur | MT=Copyright Act, 2000 | NL=Wet van 07.07.1994, Stb. JS-1994, p. 521 | PL=Ustawa z 4 lutego 1994 o prawie autorskim i prawach pokrewnych, art. 74–77, Dz.U. 1994 nr 24 poz. 83 | PT=Decreto-Lei n. 252/94, de 20 de Outubro de 1994, Diário da República – I Série A, no. 243 de 20 de Outubro de 1994, p. 6374 | RO=Law No.8/1996 updated November 2014, state authority: Romanian Copyright Office, see also Intellectual property in Romania | SK=Copyright Act of 1997-12-05 (No. 383/1997) | SI=Zakon o avtorskih in sorodnih pravicah (1995-03-30) | ES=Ley 16/1993, de 23 de diciembre, de incorporación al Derecho español de la Directiva 91/250/CEE, de 14 de mayo, sobre la protección jurídica de programas de ordenador | SE=Act No. 1687/92 | GB=Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 No. 3233

References

"Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs". Publications Office of the European Union.
Mylly, Ulla-Maija. (2009). "Harmonizing Copyright Rules for Computer Program Interface Protection". University of Louisville Law Review.
[https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text/283698 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works]. WIPO Lex. World Intellectual Property Organization.
Palenski, Ronald J.. (1991). "The EC Software Directive: Meeting the Challenges of the Information Age". Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal.
SCHMITZ, Patrice-Emmanuel. (2015-11-23). "Why viral licensing is a ghost {{!}} Interoperable Europe Portal".
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:31993L0083 Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights], ''OJ'' no. L290 of 1993-11-24, p. 9.
Articles 10 and 11 of the [https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32009L0024 ''Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs''], L 111/16 EN, Official Journal of the European Union, 5 May 2009.
[[Jeremy Phillips]], [https://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2009/05/tuesday-tiddleywinks.html ''Tuesday tiddleywinks''], [[IPKat]], 5 May 2009. Consulted on 5 May 2009.

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