Computer software is covered in a new Copyright Bill published by the UK government last week: on software, it proposes to provide the full protection of the law, with provision for assigning authorship of computer-generated work; other measures proposed in the bill in-clude making fraudulent use of others’ trademarks to be a criminal offence; unlimited fines and up to two years gaol for making or dis-tributing copies of copyright material; original designs to be protected for up to 10 years; and, an interesting one, authors and direc-tors to have rights allowing them to object to unjustifiable changes in their work, which seems to protect movie directors who are still around to complain from having their black-and-white masterpieces (or B movies) computer-coloured.
