Read the Chapter 4 material on software patents, and also the essays (linked to in the patent notes) by:
Read Baase & Henry Chapter 5, on Computer Crime
An EU parliamentary committee voted for both Directive 11 and Directive 13. Nobody quite knows what will happen next.
It seems that the goal of the directives is to ensure that content creators -- particularly European ones -- are paid fairly for their content. This makes some sense for Directive 11, requiring the licensing of brief news snippets. It makes sense for Directive 13, too, about blocking the uploading of copyrighted content, except that the proposed automatic-detection mechanism seems unlikely to work, and seems very likely to have unforeseen consequences.
The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/20/eu-votes-for-copyright-law-that-would-make-internet-a-tool-for-control) quotes Alex Voss as follows:
No one is and no one will ever filter the internet....These platforms make a considerable profit on the works uploaded by its users, so they can’t simply hide behind the argument that it is the users who are uploading, while the platform is making money from it.
This makes it sound like the issue is fixing the "DMCA loophole" used by YouTube. But YouTube fixed that long ago, on its own.
AT&T derails California's proposed net-neutrality law through determined lobbying. Most of the essential features of the bill were removed.
List of software-patent issues