Editing Software (section)

==Legal issues==
===Liability===
{{main article|Software product liability}}
Software is often released with the knowledge that it is incomplete or contains bugs. Purchasers knowingly buy it in this state, which has led to a legal regime where [[Product liability|liability]] for software products is significantly curtailed compared to other products.{{sfn|Kitchin |Dodge|2011|pp=36-37}}

===Licenses===
{{Main|Software license|Software copyright}}
[[File:Cube in Blender Editor.jpg|thumb|[[Blender (software)|Blender]], a [[free software]] program]]
Since the mid-1970s, software and its source code have been protected by [[copyright law]] that vests the owner with the exclusive right to copy the code. The underlying ideas or algorithms are not protected by copyright law, but are sometimes treated as a [[trade secret]] and concealed by such methods as [[non-disclosure agreement]]s.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|pp=394-396}} A [[software copyright]] is often owned by the person or company that financed or made the software (depending on their contracts with employees or [[Independent contracting in the United States|contractor]]s who helped to write it).{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|p=403}} Some software is in the [[public domain]] and has no restrictions on who can use it, copy or share it, or modify it; a notable example is software written by the [[Federal government of the United States|United States Government]].  [[Free and open-source software]] also allow free use, sharing, and modification, perhaps with a few specified conditions.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|p=403}}  The use of some software is governed by an agreement ([[software license]]) written by the copyright holder and imposed on the user. [[Proprietary software]] is usually sold under a restrictive license that limits its use and sharing.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|pp=394, 404}}  Some free software licenses require that modified versions must be released under the same license, which prevents the software from being sold
or distributed under proprietary restrictions.{{sfn|Langer|2016|pp=44-45}}

===Patents===
{{Main|Software patent|Software patent debate}}
[[Patent]]s give an inventor an exclusive, time-limited license for a novel product or process.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|p=395}} Ideas about what software could accomplish are not protected by law and concrete implementations are instead covered by [[copyright law]]. In some countries, a requirement for the claimed invention to have an effect on the physical world may also be part of the requirements for a software patent to be held valid.<ref>Gerardo Con Díaz, "The Text in the Machine: American Copyright Law and the Many Natures of Software, 1974–1978", ''Technology and Culture'' 57 (October 2016), 753–79.</ref> [[Software patent]]s have been [[Software patent debate|historically controversial]]. Before the 1998 case ''[[State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc.]]'', software patents were generally not recognized in the United States. In that case, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] decided that business processes could be patented.{{sfn|Jones|2014|p=19}} Patent applications are complex and costly, and lawsuits involving patents can drive up the cost of products.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|p=398}} Unlike copyrights, patents generally only apply in the jurisdiction where they were issued.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|p=399}}