(Economist)
An explosive row over how to protect intellectual property in Europe. Should a new piece of encryption software or an internet business method be covered by patents, or do copyright and trade secrets suffice? These questions underlie a heated controversy in Europe pitting open-source advocates, software developers and academics against big software firms, intellectual property lawyers and the European Commission. Because of the row, the European Parliament has again postponed the first reading of a directive on computer-related inventions. 7 September 2003
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