A bill designed to protect software authorship rights has received its first reading in the European Parliament and was subject to a total of 15 amendments in favour of an international pressure group lobbying for a relaxation of the author’s rights. IT In Europe reports that the unprecedented amount of lobbying can partly be put down to the draft of the bill received from the European Commission: normally, the Commission likes to maintain a stance of openness on such matters, but in this case, the initial draft leaned heavily towards giving the author all software rights over interface details. This greatly pleased the likes of IBM, DEC, Apple Computer and Siemens, all members of the Software Action Group for Europe, but dismayed the opposing European Committee for Interoperable Systems – which promptly went ahead and proposed a total of 57 amendments – 15 of which were accepted. As things stand at the moment, the bill now includes provision for a copyright lasting 50 years from the creation of the program; the autonomous definition of a computer program – despite the fact that the Commission had not wanted to give such a definition; and specific reference to the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works. The amendments open up a potential split between the European Commission – which appears, somewhat paradoxically, to have aligned itself with the Software Action Group – and the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee, which is looking after the interests of the European Committee for Interoperable Systems’ members. For the moment, this Committee looks to have won the day: apart from the 15 amendments, Commission vice-president Martin Bangemann performed a small but significant U-turn by stating that he was prepared to accept the principle behind the amendments relating to interfaces and interoperability. What follows will likely be a fair amount of bat and ball between Commission and Parliament in order to keep both the Software Action Group and the European Committee for Interoperable Systems happy.
