Abstract

The article is an attempt to answer the preliminary question asked by the Cour d’appel de Bruxelles in the case Top System v Selor, C-13/20, concerning the extent of permitted legal Decompilation of a computer program under the provisions of Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs, and more precisely whether Art. 5(1) of that Directive should be interpreted as permitting the lawful purchaser of a computer program to decompile all or part of that program where such decompilation is necessary to enable that person to correct errors affecting the operation of the program, including where the correction consists in disabling a function that is affecting the proper operation of the application of which the program forms a part? Before the judgment in case C-13/20 is passed, an extensive discussion pertaining to that case has been undertaken as regards the understanding of individual fields of computer program exploitation and the rights of a legal program user.Basing on the acquis of the European computer program copyright law doctrine and the history of work on Directive 2009/24 the Authoress makes an attempt to explain what decompilation of a computer program is under Directive 2009/24; how should the notion of translation and alteration of software be understood within the meaning of Art. 4(1)(b) of Directive 2009/24; what is the relationship between Art. 5 and 6 of Directive 2009/24; as well as how should the statement „necessary for the use of the computer program by the lawful acquirer” used in Art. 5 of Directive 2009/24 be understood.In conclusion, a thesis has been made according to which - with a view to the fact that Art. 5(1) of Directive 2009/24 explicitly refers to the actions mentioned in Art. 4(1)(b) of Directive 2009/24, including decompilation – it should be recognised that if decompilation is necessary for the use of the computer program by the lawful acquirer – such decompilation may be legally carried out under Art. 5(1) of Directive 2009/24, and Art. 75(1) of the Act of 4 February 1994 on Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights. At the same time, the lawful acquirer should at all times perform the actions enumerated in Art. 5(1) of Directive 2009/24, not specified explicitly in the licence agreement – only to such an extent in which they are necessary for using the program. Thus, immediately after having attained the necessary normal use the user should cease making further – apart from what is necessary – changes, including decompilation.