Intellectual property rights and computer software

Abstract

At the Snowmass Conference in 1982, the keynote speech by Harlan Cleveland dealt with the question of intellectual property rights. I will not attempt to repeat the material he covered then, but he certainly convinced many of us that we do not really understand the correct reward system, so that people who create intellectual ideas or new concepts in the computing business are adequately and appropriately rewarded for those efforts. Over the last few years, since listening to that talk, what was a very intellectual, inspiring, philosophical discourse has suddenly become a very practical, down-to-earth and difficult problem for many of us. This has been because of software for personal computers, which is the topic I want to emphasize.