平成30年度 秋期 ITパスポート試験 問7

※ Our check while writing this explanation could not fully confirm the published answer; scoring follows IPA's official key.

• ×Incorrectア

  “Program: not protected” is wrong. A program (a concrete expression such as source code) is protected under the Copyright Act as a program work.

• ×Incorrectイ

  The protection relationship is the exact opposite of the correct answer. In reality the program is protected and the algorithm (the solution method) is excluded from protection under Article 10, Paragraph 3, so this combination is wrong on both counts.

• ○ウ

  正解 The Copyright Act is a law that protects “expression.” A program is a concrete expression in the form of source code, so it is protected as a “program work” (Copyright Act, Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item 9). On the other hand, the algorithm used to develop the program (i.e., the solution method / the idea itself) is an idea rather than an expression, so under Article 10, Paragraph 3 of the Copyright Act it is clearly excluded from protection together with programming languages and conventions. Therefore the combination “Program: protected / Algorithm: not protected,” namely “ウ,” is correct.

• ×Incorrectエ

  “Program: protected” is correct, but “Algorithm: protected” is wrong. An algorithm counts as an idea and is not protected under the Copyright Act (if you want to protect it, that falls within the domain of patent rights).