Open Source Session Closed Down

Under heavy pressure from software industry trade groups flush with Microsoft macrobucks, the State Department and U.S. Patent Office have leaned on the World Intellectual Property Organization to call off a proposed meeting on open source software. The groups were apparently alarmed by the mere suggestion, voiced by a WIPO official, that it was worth discussing whether open source might tend to promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts more effectively than proprietarian alternatives.