This should be the week in which the real debate about intellectual property can finally begin. At just after noon GMT on 6 December 2006, Gordon Brown - chief architect of the United Kingdom's economic policy, and likely next prime minister - will deliver his pre-budget report to the House of Commons. Attached to this report will be the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, a study that has been a year in the making.

Andrew Gowers, a former editor of the Financial Times, was tasked by the treasury in December 2005 to investigate what changes, if any, needed to be made to the country's intellectual-property (IP) framework in order to "balance the need to encourage firms and individuals to innovate and invest in new ideas and creative works with the need to ensure that markets remain competitive and that future innovation is not impeded."...