Legal Tools to Protect Software: Choosing the Right One

Roberto Di Cosmo (1)

1 DI-ENS - Département d'informatique - ENS Paris

This article investigates the relative merits of the different legal tools available to protect software, in the very moment when the European Community considers changing its public policy on these issues. We offer a few clear arguments on the impact that the different legal tools have on software development and innovation, and urge the readers to form their own opinion.

Mots clés: copyright; free software; intellectual property; open source software; public policy; software patents; trademark

Domaines: Langage de programmation [cs.PL]

Roberto Di Cosmo. Legal Tools to Protect Software: Choosing the Right One. UPGRADE : The European Journal for the Informatics Professional, 2003, 4 (3), pp.21-23. ⟨hal-03362924⟩