Re: request for Euro IP information

Hello Alastair:

I am a lawyer, doing a Ph.D research in the University of Bristol, in England.

In 01 January 1993 came into force the EC software Directive. According to the Treaty of Rome, a Directive has a binding effect. All Member States of the European Community (founded by the Treaty of Rome at 25 March 1957) need to implement the EC Software Directive in its own legislation. The EC Software Directive protects computer programs by Copyright and regulate Intellectual Property of Software among the European countries (there are 12 Member States in the European Community). The EC Software Directive (Published in the Official Journal of the EC Community in May 1991) also regulates backup copies of software, establishes to whom belongs the computer program (to the employer or to the employee), establishes very complete regulations on decompilation/reverse engineering of software, etc.

But onlu six countries (Denmark, Germany, England, Greece, Holland and Ireland) have implemented the EC Software Directive so far. It lasts about four years the quarrel about the Ec Softwware Directive.

Many loobies groups were formed in Brussels (the capital of the EC) trying to obtain a Directive in accordance with their interests.

There are thousands of articles about the protection of software in Europe. Most of them you can find in the EIPR _European Intellectual Property Review_, a british publication. There are also many books on this subject.

I hope this is of your interest,

Bye, bye,

Tarcisio.
<Tarcisio.Cerqueira[_at_]bristol.ac.uk> Received on Fri Feb 18 1994 - 17:57:23 GMT