News 2019: Clifford Receives Grant to Study Creative Process of Software Development to Gain Insight on Copyright Laws

UMass Law Professor Ralph Clifford received a grant for his study of the creative aspects of computer programming.

UMass Law Professor Ralph Clifford received a grant for his study: "An Exploration of the Existence of Creativity in Computer Programming and its Legal Implications.” The Grant was awarded though UMass Dartmouth’s Multi-Institutional Collaborative Seed Funding Program. Conducting the study with Professor Clifford are UMass Dartmouth’s Trina Kershaw (Co-PI: PSY) and Firas Khatib (Co-PI: CIS), Jay McCarthy (UMass Lowell), and Kavitha Chandra (UMass Lowell).

The project will explore a computer programmer’s mental process while developing software to determine if software development is a creative activity. The aim of the study is to evaluate creativity used in fields such as computer software where copyright laws are becoming increasingly scrutinized. The study will help determine whether programming is appropriately creative, which will offer scientific insight to inform copyright law and policy.