Expressive software - an answer. (Score 2)

Below is my answer to the first question: What does code express and why it should be protected: You sit down in a theatre to view an emotionally moving movie. Later, looking at the physical film and the projector won't reveal the underlying beauty you just saw. The written screenplay doesn't show it. The sets, the costumes, the design artwork, the sound recordings, don't reveal the whole picture. Yet the components that make up a movie are covered as being expressive works which are protected by copyright law. The MPAA will attest to that. In a movie, there is a wonderous, almost intangible blend of variables that, when combined, produces that touching light on the screen. But the magic only happens at showtime. At showtime. Computer software is very much like a movie in this regard. Like a screenplay, source code is written with a purpose in mind. That purpose is revealed at "showtime" - when the software is run. What transpires at "showtime" is not a simple function of some non-expressive element, but very much a result of the specific expression of the software writer, and is as reliant upon the underlying hardware and media, as a movie is on the film and a projector. Grasp beams of light or try to count bits in silicon memory. Are they expressive? Over time, a collection of photons in one instance, or fleeting bits of electricity in the other, ultimately are expressions with purpose - their very coordination and existance focused into being by design. The underlying combinations of expressions that brought about the "showtime" cannot be removed without a total loss of the final expression. Educational software I have written may look elegant in source code to me, but it's not beautiful until it is run by a handicapped child, who uses it to express herself and touch the world. The smiles happen at showtime whether it's at the movies or using software. P.S. If DeCSS were not expressive, how would the MPAA know what it's purpose was and would it matter to them? If software wasn't expressive in any form, it therefore shouldn't be covered by copyright, as copyright only covers expressive works. Think Microsoft would like that rationale?