Software is a work system that can be run on hardware devices such as computers, mobile phones and other hardware devices. The main function of software is as a system that can be useful for humans as users in facilitating their work. Hardware development will always be followed by software development. The rapid development of software in the last decade cannot be separated from the large number of open source software. Open source means that it can be modified or developed by other developers (other than the original developer).
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The definition
It is, according to the official vocabulary of IT, the “set of programs, processes and rules, and possibly documentation, relating to the operation of a data processing unit”. It is therefore a more or less complex set of instructions, written in a programming language (which may be a compiled language or an interpreted language) intended to be executed by a processor, i.e. say by a computer, a mobile terminal (telephone, tablet, etc.) or by more rudimentary or more advanced devices (smart card reader, robot, connected object such as a smart speaker, etc.).
There are many types of software, depending on whether you look at it from a technical, legal, functional, etc. point of view. They are server software or client software, firmware, specific software (developed by or for a given user company) or software package (standard software intended to meet the common needs of many users), management software (accounting software, payroll, commercial management software, etc.), mobile application, proprietary software or free software (whose source code is published and/or freely modifiable), etc.
Commercial software is divided into 3 aspects of needs, namely:
- Software as a product. The software is made into a product that can be sold to people or companies that need it. For example: cashier system, postal system (Point of Sale), financial system, and others. If you have lots of ideas about how your software will be (which will be sold) but you don’t have the skills to create it, contacting a software development agency is recommended.
- Software as a business. Namely a business that is carried out by creating a software that can provide continuous income from the software through business channels. Software that is made focuses more on approaches that provide services that can be utilized by other parties by paying a license or rent.
- Software as a project. That is an individual or a company that makes software only as a project to earn income. Software makers will only make software when there is a request from the user. And when the software has been completed, the software ends as the buyer’s software.
The common rules
Legally, all this software is generally governed by common rules: these are mainly the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code. For example, the following principles can be mentioned:
Software is likely to be protected by copyright (i.e. literary and artistic property) as a work of the mind, provided that it is “original” (a condition which is the subject of quite abundant case law and difficult to analyze).
Article L. 112-2 of the Intellectual Property Code (France) provides that “are considered in particular as works of the mind within the meaning of this code (…) 13° software, including preparatory design material “. “Preparatory design material” means the functional and technical specifications of the software, i.e. the documents, established in principle before the start of the development of the software, but also during the development and on occasion software upgrades, which describe the features of the software, its technical operation, the structure of the data it uses and generates, etc.
On the other hand, under the regulations of some countries, the software is in principle not patentable, unless it is incorporated into a technical device itself likely to be the subject of a patent application. The rights of the author of the software and the rights of users, holders of a user license, are governed by the legal provisions. These provisions are not always perfectly adapted to the new methods of distributing and using software, such as SaaS or cloud computing.
The software is protected by penal sanctions: the violation of the rights of the author of the software constitutes the offense of counterfeiting software. In this respect, the IP Code provides for a specific counterfeit seizure procedure for software.
