UK Meeting Trade Secrets, Dongles, and Patents: A History of Software Protection

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 10:55:11 +0100
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>

Wednesday  8th October. 2003, 15:00-16:00, Claremont Tower, Room 519

Tea & Biscuits in Claremont Tower, (tenth floor common room) after talk.


COLLOQUIUM

University of Newcastle, School of Computing Science

Trade Secrets, Dongles, and Patents: A History of Software Protection


Speaker: Martin Campbell-Kelly   (University of Warwick)
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~mck/


Abstract

The European Parliament will shortly be voting on whether or not to allow 
software patents in Europe. Since software patents were officially 
permitted in the United States in 1982 tens of thousands have been granted. 
Software patents are deeply controversial: in particular it is argued that 
patent thicketsthreaten the existence of the software industry and the open 
source movement. This seminar traces the evolution of software protection, 
from trade secrets in the 1960s, through copyright protection in the 1970s, 
to software patents in the 1980s. The perceived threats to the future of 
software construction are set in the historical context of information 
technology patents over the last 100 years.

--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

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