독일 저작권법의 '컴퓨터프로그램보호를 위한 특별규정'

Special Provision on the Protection of Computer Programs under the Copyright Law of Germany

The copyright law of Germany (Gesetz über Urheberrecht und verwandte Schutzrechte; 'UrhG') has a special provision on the protection of computer programs (Besondere Bestimmungen für Computerprogramme) under chapter 1, section 8. This is the result of the addition of a special provision to the second amendment to the German Copyright Law on June 9, 1993 (Zweites Gesetz zur Änderung des Urheberrechtsgesetzes vom 9. Juni 1993) for the purpose of incorporating the Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs into the existing German copyright laws. Germany chose to take this route of incorporation, rather than enacting a separate special statute. The special provision on the protection of computer programs has seven sections from §69a to §69g. §69a stipulates and regulates the computer programs to be protected; §69b the holders of the protected rights in the context of employment relationships; §69c the types of conduct requiring consent of the right holder; §69d the exceptions to §69c, i.e., the situations where the holder's consent is not required; §69e the reverse-compiling; §69f the infringement of the protected rights; and §69g the application of other relevant laws. This paper focuses on the contents and the meanings of the above mentioned sections, as it aims to introduce the contents and the policies of the special provision on the protection of computer programs under the German copyright law. It will also introduce the contents of the EC directives, which have been the direct cause of the special provision, and the relevancy and the relatedness among the sections through the commentary on each section.