Protecting GUIs in EU law: Bezpecnostni Softwarova Asociace

Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) make it easier for people to operate electronic equipment. GUIs are also being used in television programmes to display, for example, the results of elections. But who in EU law has the right to control a GUI? The wording of the EU legislation provided no clear answer. Whereas the Software Directive protects the expression in any form of a computer program, and the InfoSoc Directive allows an author to prohibit the communication of their work to the public, it is a fact that television viewers cannot interact with the computer program. The ECJ has now answered this question. EU law will not protect a GUI under the Software Directive but it might qualify as a work under the InfoSoc Directive. However, even if a GUI is protected as a work, then a right holder still cannot stop a GUI from being broadcast by television. A critical analysis of the ECJ's reasoning in Bezpečnostní Softwarová Asociace, reveals that despite the Court singing its mantra of interpreting an EU Directive's concepts in light of the norms of international law, EU copyright legislation, and indeed other pieces of EU law, in this case the Court does no such thing – it just dips into a couple of French law books. This inclusion of French legal thinking into EU law could have profound implications for the further Europeanisation of copyright law.