Open Source Session Closed Down

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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.