Position Paper #3: What Is a Computer Program?

For this position paper, I would like you to evaluate the following argument:

A special-purpose computer (i.e., a computer that does just one task) is essentially a hardwired computer program. Such a hardwired computer program is a machine. Machines can be patented. Therefore, such a hardwired computer program can be patented. The printed text of a computer program is a "literary work" (i.e., a piece of writing). Literary works can be copyrighted. Therefore, such a computer program can be copyrighted. Nothing can be both patented and copyrighted. Note: This premise is a matter of law. You must accept it as true. There is no computational or other relevant difference between the hardwired computer program and its textual counterpart (except for the different media in which they are implemented, one being hardwired and the other being written on, say, a piece of paper). Therefore, computer programs can be both patented and copyrighted.

To help you evaluate this argument (which we'll look at in more detail in lecture later this semester), here are some extracts from some relevant websites:

1. From the official US Patent Office definition of "patent":
   a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor "to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States" for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.

2. The Patent Office definition of "invention":
   any art or process (way of doing or making things), machine, manufacture, design, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, or any variety of plant, which is or may be patentable under the patent laws of the United States.

3. The official US Copyright Office definition of "copyright":
   Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States...to the authors of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

4. From the same website:
   Copyrightable works include the following categories:
   1. literary works;
   2. musical works, including any accompanying words
   3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
   4. pantomimes and choreographic works
   5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
   6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
   7. sound recordings
   8. architectural works

   These categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer programs and most "compilations" may be registered as "literary works"; maps and architectural plans may be registered as "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works."

   WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?

   Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection. These include among others:

   • Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded)
   • Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
   • Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration
   • Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)

• Your position paper should be approximately 

  1-2 typed pages, double-spaced (i.e., about 250-500 words), and single-sided.

• Please bring 5 copies to class on the due date.

• This paper only needs the title "Position Paper #3", your name, the date, and the course number (410, 498, or 510) at the top of the page.

• For general assistance with writing (including my preferred method of paper preparation and format, as well as advice on grammar), see my website "How to Write".

• For general guidelines on how to evaluate an argument, see the newsgroup posting in "Subject: POSITION PAPER 2 -- ANALYSIS & GRADING" or the website "Critical Thinking Core Concepts" (also see its table of contents).

  DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF LECTURE, THURSDAY, MARCH 25