Any software covered by the license must be shared, even when changed or added to.

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What is less widely known is that the range of processes covered by standard software is modest.

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And software is already covered under copyright law, which offers extensive legal protections against wholesale copying.

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The Supreme Court did uphold a patent on a software-controlled rubber-curing machine in 1981, but its ruling emphasized that this was because the patent covered a physical machine that happened to have a software component, rather than claiming a software technique by itself.

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The software that locks a smartphone to one carrier is covered by the act, and unlocking a phone is the process of freeing a device so that it can be used with a different wireless carrier.

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