THE LIMITS OF EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO COMPUTER PROGRAMS

Abstract

In the article, the author examines time, content and object boundaries of exclusive rights to computer programs. It has been substantiated that the meaningful boundaries of exclusive rights should be established through a closed list of cases of free use. At the same time, the balance sheet doctrine of fair use, supplemented by the concepts of “transformative use”, cannot serve as a tool for establishing such boundaries. At the same time, in order to resolve atypical conflicts of interest arising in relation to a specific object of copyright between a person interested in access to such an object and the rightholder, standards for assessing the behavior of the rightholder should be developed – special (in relation to Article 10 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) limits for the implementation of exclusive right. With regard to the object boundaries of rights to computer programs, it was concluded that they are established by means of the “traditional” concept of copyright “protected form – unprotected content” and the doctrine of “essential part”. The principle of exhaustion of rights should not apply to such objects.