Lecture
It is governed by Law of the Russian Federation No. 3523-I of 23 September 1992 "On the Legal Protection of Computer Programs and Databases" (as amended and supplemented on 24 December 2002 by No. 177-FZ and on 2 November 2004 by No. 127-FZ).
Under this Law, computer programs are classified as objects of copyright, on a par with literary works.
Protection of computer programs extends to all types of computer programs (including operating systems), which may be expressed in any language and in any form, including source code and object code.
Legal protection does not extend to the ideas and principles underlying a computer program or a database or any element thereof, including the ideas and principles of the organisation of the interface and of the algorithm, nor to programming languages.
1. Copyright runs from the moment of creation of the computer program or database for the whole life of the author and for 50 years after his death, counted from 1 January of the year following the year of the author's death.
2. The date of expiry of copyright in a computer program or database created in co-authorship is calculated from the death of the last author to survive the other co-authors.
3. Copyright in a computer program or database released anonymously or under a pseudonym runs for 50 years from the moment of their release. If the author of a computer program or database released anonymously or under a pseudonym discloses his identity within the said period, or if the pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no doubt as to his identity, the term of protection provided for in paragraph 1 of this article applies.
4. The moral rights of the author of a computer program or database are protected in perpetuity.
Even lawfully disclosed software may not be used without the author's consent and payment of author's remuneration, even when used for personal purposes.
In the sale of copies of computer programs and databases and in providing mass users with access to them, it is permitted to apply the special procedure for concluding copyright contracts established by the Law of the Russian Federation "On the Legal Protection of Computer Programs and Databases".
The author of a computer program or database, or another rightholder, has the exclusive right to perform and (or) to authorise the performance of the following acts:
reproduction of the computer program or database (in whole or in part) in any form and by any means;
distribution of the computer program or database;
modification of the computer program or database, including translation of the computer program or database from one language into another; (analogous to the right of adaptation and translation)
other use of the computer program or database
2. The exclusive right to a computer program or database created in the performance of work under a state contract for federal state needs or the needs of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation belongs to the performer (contractor), unless the state contract provides that this right belongs to the Russian Federation or to the constituent entity of the Russian Federation on whose behalf the state customer acts.
3. Where, under paragraph 2 of this article, the exclusive right to a computer program or database does not belong to the Russian Federation or to a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the rightholder is obliged, at the request of the state customer, to conclude with the person or persons designated by the customer a contract for the gratuitous grant of the right to use the computer program or database in the manufacture of goods supplied or in the performance of contract work for federal state needs or the needs of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.
4. Remuneration to the author of a computer program or database who is not the rightholder is paid by the person who acquired the exclusive right under paragraph 2 of this article. The procedure for payment and the amount of remuneration are established by a contract between the author and the rightholder.
1. The rightholder, directly or through his representative, may at his discretion, during the term of copyright, register the computer program or database with the federal executive body for intellectual property, with the exception of computer programs and databases containing information constituting a state secret.
2. An application for the official registration of a computer program or database (hereinafter - the application for registration) must relate to one computer program or one database.
The application for registration must contain:
a request for the official registration of the computer program or database, indicating the rightholder and also the author, if he has not declined to be mentioned as such, and their location (place of residence);
the deposited materials identifying the computer program or database, including an abstract;
a document confirming payment of the state fee in the established amount or the grounds for exemption from payment of the state fee.
The rules for drawing up the application for registration are determined by the federal executive body for intellectual property.
3. After the application for registration is received, the federal executive body for intellectual property verifies the presence of the required documents and their compliance with the requirements set out in paragraph 2 of this article. If the verification produces a positive result, the federal executive body for intellectual property enters the computer program or database in the Register of Computer Programs or the Register of Databases respectively, issues the applicant a certificate of official registration, and publishes information on the registered computer programs and databases in the official bulletin of the federal executive body for intellectual property.
At the request of the federal executive body for intellectual property, or on his own initiative, the applicant is entitled, before the information is published in the official bulletin, to supplement, clarify and correct the materials of the application.
4. The procedure for the official registration of computer programs and databases, the forms of the certificates of official registration, the list of information to be indicated in them, and also the list of information published in the official bulletin, are established by the federal executive body for intellectual property.
5. Contracts for the full or partial transfer of the exclusive right to computer programs and databases may, by agreement of the parties, be registered with the federal executive body for intellectual property. Information on a change of rightholder on the basis of a registered contract is entered in the Register of Computer Programs or the Register of Databases and published in the official bulletin of the federal executive body for intellectual property.
6. Information entered in the Register of Computer Programs or the Register of Databases is deemed reliable until the contrary is proved.
The applicant bears responsibility for the reliability of the said information.
7. For the performance of legally significant acts connected with the registration of computer programs and databases and of contracts, a state fee is payable in the amounts and in the manner established by the legislation of the Russian Federation on taxes and levies.
The use of a computer program or database by third parties (users) is carried out on the basis of a contract with the rightholder, except in the cases specified in Article 16 of this Law.
A contract for the use of a computer program or database is concluded in written form.
In the sale of computer programs and databases and in providing mass users with access to them, it is permitted to apply a special procedure for concluding contracts, for example by setting out the terms of the contract on the copies of the computer programs and databases that are transferred.
A person lawfully possessing a copy of a computer program or database is entitled, without obtaining additional authorisation from the rightholder, to perform any acts connected with the functioning of the computer program or database in accordance with its purpose, including recording and storing it in the computer's memory, as well as correcting obvious errors. Recording and storage in the computer's memory are permitted in respect of one computer or one user in a network, unless otherwise provided by the contract with the rightholder.
A person lawfully possessing a copy of a computer program or database is entitled, without the consent of the rightholder and without payment of additional remuneration to him:
to adapt the computer program or database;
make, or authorise the making of, a copy of the computer program or database, provided that such copy is intended solely for archival purposes and, where necessary (in the event that the original of the computer program or database is lost, destroyed or becomes unfit for use), for replacing the lawfully acquired copy. The copy of the computer program or database may not be used for any other purpose and must be destroyed if further use of that computer program or database ceases to be lawful.
A person lawfully possessing a copy of a computer program has the right, without the consent of the rightholder and without payment of additional remuneration, to decompile or to authorise the decompilation of the computer program in order to study the coding and structure of that program, subject to the following conditions:
the information necessary for the interaction of a computer program independently developed by that person with other programs is not available from other sources;
the information obtained as a result of such decompilation may be used only for organising the interaction of the computer program independently developed by that person with other programs, and not for creating a new computer program substantially similar in its nature to the decompiled computer program, or for carrying out any other act infringing copyright;
decompilation is carried out only in respect of those parts of the computer program which are necessary for organising such interaction.
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