Agence pour la Protection des Programmes

The Agence pour la Protection des Programmes (APP) is a French association founded in 1982 by Daniel Duthil to represent and defend the interests of software authors and information-technology designers. It is a non-profit organisation under French law, headquartered in France, and it operates primarily in the French market. Its core mission is to help creators of software and digital works establish and prove their intellectual property rights, notably by providing procedures for depositing and escrowing source code and other digital assets. APP's activities rest on deposit, escrow and digital-evidence management services. Through its source-code deposit service, an author can prove the anteriority of intellectual property rights over a digital work. APP offers several deposit modalities, including a standard deposit without content verification, a verified deposit that includes technical analysis such as digital fingerprint calculation, and a controlled deposit with in-depth verification, potentially including functional testing. Each deposit is time-stamped and associated with a digital fingerprint attesting to its date of creation, authenticity and integrity. After deposit, the member receives an IDDN certificate. The controlled deposit is typically requested by a user to verify that the sources deposited by a supplier with APP correspond to the program installed on the user's workstations. This verification is carried out by an APP sworn agent. Controlled deposits generally take place within an escrow contract, which allows access to the sources when certain conditions are met. APP also offers contractual access to sources for users in case of supplier failure or maintenance default, either through a source-access clause in the licence agreement referring to APP's general regulations, or through an escrow agreement signed by the supplier, the user and APP. APP also historically offered a referencing product that gave a certain date to a digital work and proved anteriority of rights in case of dispute. The digital medium containing the creation was placed in a sealed envelope called a logibox, and APP issued a certificate indicating the Inter Deposit Digital Number (IDDN) under which the work was identified. The logibox was kept by the member. APP indicated that it was possible to reference computer programs (source code or executable version), their user documentation, preparatory documents, and any work or document in digital format such as texts, music, videos or databases. APP has sworn agents authorised to take an oath by orders of the French Ministry of Culture. They are competent to record any infringement of authors' rights, particularly software authors or database producers. The reports from these observations are recognised and taken into account by courts, which give them significant probative force. APP thus combines a collective-management and rights-defence role with technical evidence services for the digital economy.

The Agence pour la Protection des Programmes (APP) was created in 1982 by Daniel Duthil. It is a French association that represents and defends the interests of software authors. From its foundation, APP developed various escrow procedures allowing authors to pre-constitute proof of their rights. Over time, it built a set of services around deposit, escrow and management of digital evidence, aimed at securing intellectual property rights over software and other digital works. APP established sworn agents who are authorised to take an oath by orders of the French Ministry of Culture. These agents are competent to record any infringement of authors' rights, particularly software authors or database producers. The reports from these observations are recognised and taken into account by courts, which give them significant probative force. This gives APP a distinctive role combining collective representation with technical and legal evidence gathering. APP's activities rest mainly on deposit, escrow and digital-evidence management services. Its source-code deposit service allows an author to prove the anteriority of intellectual property rights over a digital work. APP offers several deposit modalities: a standard deposit without content verification; a verified deposit including technical analysis of files (notably digital fingerprint calculation); and a controlled deposit with in-depth verification, notably for software, potentially including functional testing. Each deposit is time-stamped and associated with a digital fingerprint attesting to its date of creation, authenticity and integrity. After deposit, an IDDN certificate is issued to the member. The controlled deposit is generally requested by a user to verify that the sources deposited by a supplier with APP correspond to the program installed on the user's workstations. This verification is carried out by an APP sworn agent. Controlled deposits generally take place within an escrow contract, which allows access to the sources when certain conditions are met. These arrangements are part of a probative logic aimed at securing authors' rights and facilitating the management of digital assets. The interest of the procedure is twofold: it guarantees greater security for the conservation of seals, and the member can contractually provide for access to sources in case of its own failure with a user, based on the copy kept by APP. This is a strong commercial argument, since the durability of the software is thus guaranteed. APP defines sources as including source program, preparatory materials, analysis and design files, scenario, etc. Depositing sources with APP allows suppliers to contractually provide access to sources for their users in case of supplier failure or maintenance default. This access can only take place if it has been previously provided for contractually. Two procedures are possible: either the two parties insert a source-access clause in the licence contract referring to APP's general regulations, or the supplier, the user and APP sign an escrow agreement arranging this access. This possibility of contractually providing access to sources is a very strong commercial argument that reassures future users about the durability of their investment. APP also historically offered a referencing product. Referencing allows an author to give a certain date to a digital work and thus prove the anteriority of intellectual property rights in case of dispute. APP places the digital medium containing the creation in a sealed envelope called a logibox and issues a certificate indicating the Inter Deposit Digital Number (IDDN) under which the work is henceforth identified. The logibox is kept by the member. APP indicates that it is possible to reference computer programs (source code or executable version), their user documentation, preparatory documents, but also any work or document in digital format such as texts, music, videos or databases.

• 1982

  APP is created by Daniel Duthil as a French association to defend software authors.

• APP develops escrow procedures allowing authors to pre-constitute proof of their rights.

• APP establishes sworn agents authorised by orders of the French Ministry of Culture to record infringements of authors' rights.

• APP offers source-code deposit modalities: standard, verified and controlled deposits, with IDDN certificate issuance.

• APP historically offers a referencing product using a sealed logibox and IDDN number.

Non-profit French association providing legal and technical evidence services for software authors and digital works.

• Standard deposit

  Deposit without content verification.

• Verified deposit

  Deposit including technical analysis of files, notably digital fingerprint calculation.

• Controlled deposit

  Deposit with in-depth verification, notably for software, potentially including functional testing, carried out by an APP sworn agent.

• Escrow agreement

  Contract allowing access to sources when certain conditions are met.

• IDDN certificate

  Certificate issued to the member after deposit, identifying the work under an Inter Deposit Digital Number.

• Logibox referencing

  Historical product placing the digital medium in a sealed envelope called a logibox and issuing an IDDN certificate.

1. 1Wikidata: Agence pour la Protection des Programmeswikidata.org
2. 2Wikipédia: Agence pour la protection des programmesfr.wikipedia.org