A Directive on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs was passed in1991, demanding that EU member states pass laws protecting computer programs as literary works and providing for interoperability between pieces of software.
That Directive has been subject to a number of amendments, including some by the Copyright Term Directive, so it was decided that a new version of the Directive would be published, incorporating all the amendments but not changing the impact of the legislation.
The new Directive is numbered 2009/24/EC and was published in the EU Official Journal on 23 April this year. It came into effect 20 days later, on 25 May.