§ Miss Emma NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) if the Common position on the software directive adopted by the Council of Ministers allows vendors to engage in limited reverse analysis of a program for the purpose of developing a new program which competes with the program being analysed;
(2) if he will make it his policy to seek modifications to the EC draft software directive to add a limited derogation for maintenance purposes;
(3) in what circumstances the compilation of software into a form which is readable by human beings will be permitted under the European software directive.
§ Mr. LeighThe Council of Ministers adopted a common position on the EC directive on the legal protection of computer programs in December and modification of its terms can be made only if the European Parliament proposes amendments. The directive does not provide a general exception to copyright to allow the reproduction or translation of a program in any form or to allow its analysis for the purpose of maintenance or for producing a new product. There will, however, be cases where such activities will fall within the scope of exceptions in articles 5 or 6. These provisions allow error correction, analysis of a program during running and decompilation of a program for the purpose of achieving interoperability of an independently created program with another program, subject to certain conditions.
§ Miss Emma NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what consideration he has given to the impact that a vendor monopoly on the service of computer programs would have on independent systems integrators and maintenance firms;
(2) what consideration he has given to the costs that a monopoly to conduct program maintenance would impose on computer users in terms of high prices, service and product choice.
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§ Mr. LeighThe aim of the EC software directive is to afford protection to computer programs as their development requires the investment of substantial resources. Some exceptions to protection are, however, permitted and these will allow certain maintenance activities. In any event, those supplying maintenance services to the users of computer systems are subject to both national and Community competition law relating to abuse of monopolies and restrictive practices.
§ Miss Emma NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he is taking to ensure that the views of users of information technology concerning the EC software directive are represented to the European Commission.
§ Mr. LeighMy Department sought the views of all interested parties, including users, throughout the negotiations on the EC software directive and all these views were taken into account in determining the United Kingdom attitude to the proposals. User groups also made their views known to the EC Commission.
§ Miss Emma NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) whether acts characterised as United Kingdom local custom and usage in the computer industry and undertaken to maintain computer programs will be permitted by the EC directive on software copyright;
(2) whether acts characterised as United Kingdom local custom and usage in the computer industry and undertaken to engage in reverse analysis of computer programs to develop non-infringing programs will be permitted under the EC directive on software copyright.
§ Mr. LeighThe directive will require member states to give copyright protection to computer programs as literary works. This is already the case in the United Kingdom. When the directive is implemented, the protection afforded will be very similar to that already existing here, so the legality, or otherwise, of the activities referred to as "local custom and usage" will not change to any significant degree.