Look and feel copyright in Europe (from GNU)
Peder Chr. N|rgaard
I think this news is a bit out of date. In the Danish version
of "Computerworld", August 10th, 1990, the IDG News Service is cited
for (in my halting translation into English):
The Parliament of Europa has accepted the draft of a common
European Law about Software Copyright. This law excludes the
the interface of a program from Copyright protection.
It is a pretty interesting article, and it takes some of the air out
of the GNU "Look and feel copyright" paper. According to the article
EEC Commisionary Martin Bangemann really do know what is going on so
the risk for the EEC to make a "slip" is just not present.
I suggest that some people closer to the EEC policy makers keep us
EUNet people informed on the development in this extremely important
case.
Greetings
--
Peder Chr. Norgaard **** pcnor...@daimi.aau.dk
Computer Science Department, Aarhus University
Ny Munkegade 116, DK-8000 Aarhus C, DENMARK
phone: +45 86 12 71 88 / telefax: +45 86 13 57 25 / telex: 64767 aausci dk
Martin Weigele
>I think this news is a bit out of date. In the Danish version
>of "Computerworld", August 10th, 1990, the IDG News Service is cited
>for (in my halting translation into English):
> The Parliament of Europa has accepted the draft of a common
> European Law about Software Copyright. This law excludes the
> the interface of a program from Copyright protection.
>It is a pretty interesting article, and it takes some of the air out
>of the GNU "Look and feel copyright" paper. According to the article
>EEC Commisionary Martin Bangemann really do know what is going on so
>the risk for the EEC to make a "slip" is just not present.
>I suggest that some people closer to the EEC policy makers keep us
>EUNet people informed on the development in this extremely important
>case.
I am afraid the GNU position is NOT out of date. I managed to get
the original papers from the European Parliament. For anyone
interested, you can get it from your national information office
of the European Parliament. It's in the minutes of the session
of the European Parliament from 11/Jul/90, "PE 143.503",
pages 26, page 33.
I got the German version. Right now I don't have the time
to translate, but if I might get an English translation,
I might post it if there is interest.
Regards,
Martin Weigele, FB Informatik, Univ. Hamburg, Bodenstedtstr. 16
D-2000 Hamburg 50, GERMANY, Tel. +49 40 4123 6111