Interoperabilit t von Software

This article reviews Article 6 of theSoftware Directive and discusses the need for a revi-sion. Beyond clarification of the scope of the very lim-ited provision on reverse engineering, it seems thatthe introduction of the clause into copyright was un-fortunate. The indirect protection of ideas by prohib-iting reverse engineering is foreign to the copyrightconcept. Permitting reverse engineering altogetherwould promote research and development and fur-ther other goals like ICT security. Innovation wouldnot be retarded, which is the reason why US tradesecret law permits reverse engineering based alsoon economic arguments. The notions of compatibil-ity Article 6 tries to address are better dealt with byCompetition Law, which was demonstrated by theMicrosoft Decision of the European Court in 2007.