Legal protection of software
Susan H. Nycum · Encyclopedia of Computer Science · 2003
Computer software is expensive to develop and maintain. It has high monetary value to its owners, both because it can give them a competitive advantage when used internally to do tasks more cheaply or quickly and because it can be licensed for use by others. Software, however, is very easy to copy at a trivial cost and is, therefore, very susceptible to pirating. Because of its value and its vulnerability to misappropriation, ownership interests in software must be protected.