The evidence merely documents that certain choices were made among factors at a gross level, e.g., the scope of the system, the number of variables to be used or the portions of the work force to be included in the calculation of labor hours. The result of these choices, however, does not constitute program structure sequence and operation.
Under this approach, the courts attempt to state the overall purpose of a program and, to the extent that purpose is abstract (e.g., ``spread sheet program'') the more likely it is that the program is unprotectable under copyright law. To the extent that the purpose of a particular subroutine is specific (e.g., ``increase computation speed by transferring the contents of one particular file to another only if a predetermined condition is met''), the routine is more likely to be protectable under copyright law.