The Copyright Act provides that a person who infringes copyright may, in some cases, be committing a criminal offence (as well as being liable to the owner of the copyright). It is, for example, an offence to make an infringing copy of a program to sell. It is also an offence to advertise the supply of an infringing program. The penalties vary according to the type of infringement, and whether the offender is an individual or a company. A court also has the power to jail offenders for a first time conviction for an infringement of copyright in a cinematograph film, or in relation to second or further convictions. Also, a court has the power to order that equipment used to make infringing copies (such as a computer used to copy software onto diskettes) be confiscated.

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No. Copyright protection for software generally lasts for the life of the individual author of the program plus 70 years. If the company which published the program owns copyright in the program and goes out of business, ownership of the copyright may be transferred to whoever buys the assets of the company.

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There have been a number of cases in which designs for individual letters have been held to be “artistic works” for the purposes of copyright. Although copyright in some popular typefaces has expired, many popular typeface designs are still in copyright.

If you are generating documents or designs using a computer, the real issue is whether you are licensed to use the software that includes and generates that font. Check the licence agreement which accompanies the software, or any statements from the relevant company (for example, on its website, or in the “readme” files that often accompany software). These are likely to state what you can do with the software and the font. If you are outsourcing the printing of documents, it may be that the printing company will need its own licensed copy of the relevant font software.

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Copyright protection is free and automatic; there is no requirement to register or to go through any other formal procedure. A computer program is protected from the moment it is fixed in a “material form”—for example, on a hard disk or on paper. It is a good idea to put the copyright notice (see above under the heading “How do you get copyright?”) on your program to warn others that it is protected and that you own the rights in it.

In addition to copyright protection, you may also want to consider technological measures such as “copy protection” or encoded information to inhibit or discourage unauthorised copying.

In some cases, patent protection may be available for aspects of computer programs. For information about patent protection, see the website of IP Australia or contact a patent attorney.

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You should check the licence that applies to the spreadsheet program to see whether it allows you to commercialise products created with the program as, if the licence does not allow this, you may be infringing copyright in the spreadsheet program by copying your program to disk for sale.

Your program is likely to be protected by copyright in its own right. You will generally own any copyright you create, unless you create it in the course of your employment.

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A program derived from an existing program is likely to be separately protected by copyright. The owner of copyright in the new version is likely to be the person who created it. However, the copyright in the improved version will be subject to the copyright in the underlying program, and you will not be able to use or exploit the enhanced program without permission from the owner of copyright in the underlying program.

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