Who owns software? That question is at the heart of one of the most complex and important public policy questions facing policy makers in Europe and around the world. In late September, the European parliament voted to approve a new directive that would, for the first time, grant patents to new and innovative software.

Yet the vote did not come without controversy. Advocates of open source software argued that the law granted too much power to large, corporate patent holders. They suggest that software be governed only by copyright protection that promotes greater sharing and innovation by all software users. Others counter that current intellectual property laws are vital to create an incentive for future technological innovation.

The issue has not been resolved. Yet we know that because software plays such a central role in almost all aspects of business, technology, and innovation, the question of how its intellectual property ought to be protected will remain a critical and contentious issue.

To consider this question we have invited two thoughtful observers of the evolution of software who bring very different perspectives: a leader in the European open source software movement and a careful analyst of the industry who can put today's pressing questions about patents in a historical context .

Dr Martin Campbell-Kelly is reader in computer science at the University of Warwick, where he specializes in the history of the computer and software industries. He has held visiting positions at the London School of Economics, the Dibner Institute MIT, Manchester University, and the Smithsonian Institution. His latest book From Airlines Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry (MIT Press) was published in spring 2003. His previous books include Computer: A History of the Information Machine co-authored with William Aspray, and ICL: A Business and Technical History. He was editor of the Collected Works of Charles Babbage and serves on the editorial boards of numerous publications including IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and the Computer Journal.

M. Roland Dyroff is a business consultant and a board member of SUSE Linux AG and of Linus-Verband e.V., a german assocation of some 70 companies in the area of Open Source Software. He is a graduate in economics and mathematics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and was awarded his masters degree in mathematics in 1994. Before co-founding SuSE Linux AG, one of the world's leading suppliers of products and solutions based on Open Source operating system Linux, he made a career in the software industry as an engineer.

Debate will be moderated by Brian Carney of the Wall Street Journal Europe.