Computer programs, databases and compilations of data are eligible for protection as literary works and the attendant economic rights apply. Section 6(2) provides that a compilation of data or other material, whether in a machine-readable or other form, is eligible for protection as a literary work, except that
(a) the compilation shall only be regarded as original if, by reason of the selection or arrangement of its contents, the compilation constitutes the author's own intellectual creation; and
(b) the protection does not extend to any data or other material forming part of the compilation and is without prejudice to any copyright subsisting in any such data or other material.
The moral right to be identified as the author of a computer programme does not apply unless expressly provided for in contract [s. 14(9)]. The moral right to object to derogatory treatment also does not apply to computer programmes. Section 45(4) provides that where an action is brought for infringement with respect to a computer programme, and copies of the programme are issued to the public in an electronic form bearing a statement
(a) that a named person was the owner of copyright in the programme at the date of issue of the copies; or
(b) that the programme was first published in a named country or that copies of it were first issued to the public in electronic form in a specified year;
the statement shall be admissible as evidence of the facts stated and presumed to be correct until the contrary is proved.
Copyright in a computer programme shall not be infringed by the rental of copies to the public after the end of the period of fifty years from the end of the calendar year in which copies of it were first issued to the public in electronic form [s.78(4)].
