§ Miss Emma NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) if he will make it his policy to seek amendment to the EC draft software directive to ensure that computer interfaces do not become subject to copyright;
(2) if he will make it his policy to seek amendment to the EC draft software directive to ensure that an interface is defined objectively and not by the computer or software manufacturer.
§ Mr. LeighThe directive would oblige member states to extend copyright protection to the expression of a computer program but not to ideas and principle428W underlying the program. This corresponds with existing copyright law in the United Kingdom. Interface specifications will not therefore acquire copyright protection as a result of the directive. The directive already employs the term "interface" in an objective sense and does not therefore give the creator of a computer program the right to define what part of the program constitutes an interface for the purposes of the directive.