The main topic of this paper is the copyright protection of computer programs in Croatia, with Copyright and Related Rights Act being at the centre. Croatian legislation follows the international as well as European trends when it comes to copyright protection, abiding by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and WIPO Copyright Treaty with due respect to EU Directives regarding this subject. Computer programs are defined as literary works in the context of copyright law and the author of the program enjoys both financial and moral rights as well as their protection in case of infringement. Copyright is not transferable to another person, except when it comes to inheritance, other than that the author can dispose of his financial rights in one of two ways, either by setting up a right to use for another or giving over, to another, the right to realize the copyright. There's also an alternative type of protection based on specific licensing contracts, such as „GNU GPL“ which is based on the philosophy of free software, free meaning freedoms that users enjoy, not necessarily free of cost. Proponents of this philosophy use the term „copyleft“, as a wordplay on the word copyright, since it uses the principles and rules of copyright but with a different goal in mind, putting the program in focus and not the developer, ensuring essential freedoms of a computer program for future users and developers.