IBM's Pragmatic Embrace of Open Source

摘要

Twenty years ago, IBM Corp. was the most vigorous advocate of very strong intellectual property (IP) rights for computer programs. Without strong copyright protection, IBM contended, there would be insufficient incentives for firms to invest in software development. IBM's executives and lawyers asserted that: copyright law protected program code from copying and redistribution, as well as protecting the structure, sequence, and organization of programs; interface specifications were among the original elements of computer programs that copyright did and should protect; and reverse engineering of computer programs for purposes such as discerning interface information in order to develop interoperable programs infringed copyrights.