The references throughout in this article are worth their weight on their own IMO. For e.g.
- Díaz GC. The Text in the Machine: American Copyright Law and the Many Natures of Software, 1974-1978. Technol Cult. 2016;57(4):753-779. doi: 10.1353/tech.2016.0106. PMID: 28569689.
- Conference on Grey Literature and Repositories: proceedings 2014: the Value of Grey Literature in Repositories [online]. Prague: National Library of Technology, 2014 [cit. 2014-12-19]. Available from: http://nrgl.techlib.cz/index.php/Proceedings. ISSN 2336-5021.
This brief overview shows that both copyright law and software have significantly advanced since the days of the TRIPS negotiations and, despite the continuing skepticism of critics, it seems reasonable to suggest that in the unlikely event that TRIPS were to be re-opened for new negotiations, copyright protection for software would no longer be questioned. After a quarter century of marriage, software and copyright are not the same as when they first met.
Trimble, Marketa, “A Quarter Century of International Copyright on Software” (2020). Scholarly Works.