In order to bring copyright litigation, a work must be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. For most written works, like novels, authors can simply obtain the version of the novel that is on file with the U.S. Copyright Office and compare it to the allegedly infringing copy to determine what they have in common. These common sections may constitute copyright infringement if they are not covered by fair use.
With software, this simple process doesn’t work. Software code contains both trade secrets in the functionality and copyrightable expression in the way it is written. Registering the software to protect the expression would expose the functionality and destroy all trade secrets that must, by definition, be kept secret.
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