In May 2012, the European Court of Justice finally ruled that the copyright afforded to computer programs does not protect the functionality of a computer program, its programming language or the format of data files used in it.

Further, if you lawfully possess a copy of a computer program under licence, you can study its functioning to determine the ideas underlying it.

, but the social media explosion has opened up many legal claims.

One particularly vexing question for the courts has been what liability a company has if its own website links to a site which is defamatory.

It seems that the operator of the originating website could still be liable for postings on the hyperlinked website.