How is a persons contribution recognised when creating software?
In much the same way as authorship on a paper. The intellectual input may well arise not only from the actual writing of the software, but also at the conceptual stage of its development. As such, copyright in the software should be attributed to all those involved in its development. If a student acts as a research assistant on a project, say in a data collection role, should they be credited as a co-author on any publications by their supervisor that result from the research project? No. Collection of data alone is not sufficient to warrant co-authorship on a paper.
