Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Copyright violation in writing software

To receive copyright protection for your expression (i.e. source code), you must create something "original"--not something "unique." Additionally, any copyright to which you are entitled for your source code will not cover any of the elements utilized that are not original to you (i.e. code from Excel). Where, as here, you have employed copyrighted expression that is not original to you as elements of a larger derivative work, your copyright in the entire work (less the elements not orignal to you) will be enforceable if two conditions are met: (1) You are lawfully entitled to use the elements not original to you for the creation of your own derivative copyrighted work (check your Microsoft user license agreement regarding your rights in the Excel program); and (2) Your overall work is sufficiently original and different from any pre-existing work, such that it stands on its own as a copyrightable expression.