Preparatory Design Material
I don't know if this is the right place to post my question but as Interoperability might be a related issue, here it is : browsing through European existing legislation on software protection, I found the expression "preparatory design material" as supposed to be included under the definition of computer program. Would anybody have an idea about what this reffers to ?
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"The term 'computer programs' shall include their preparatory design material."
My first opinion would be that this "preparatory design material" means something like specifications. Do I understand this as a notion that you must embed these specs to prove you're not infringing on someone else's patent portfolio? Maybe my mind is twisted on this… :-)
In French "le matériel de conception préparatoire".. :x
Paper and ink.. ?
LOL yes. I think they want to mention the spec and whatever "industrial design" logic they have in mind. But it's clear to me this directive has never been written or reviewed by any developer. A spec gets written, or the developer writes it (the latter does not happen to often…) and then the software is developed based on this. Any "preparatory design" aside the spec falls short from the reality.
I'm curious: are you aware of any developer who got in trouble because of this directive?