Re: [PubSoft] US Gov intervention [in WSIS (F)OSS Declaration]

A fresh, related report from El Reg' just popped in:
Why US gov reps mugged pro open source declaration
And why there's a clash with developing countries brewing
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29157.html

It's a relatively long report, so i've extracted the paragraphs
leading up to the conclusion as they seem most relevant to this
list's topics. [SeeBeLow. Links' URLs also hand-inserted]

Note: there is a mention of "copyleft" and Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR) that would seem like a good starting
point for some practical comment from Mr Stallman.

At 06:03 2003.02.05, [Mr Kritikos of PubSoft] wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, FN wrote:
> software. A draft of the declaration had called for open
source to be
> "supported" but was changed after objections from the U.S.
> government delegation late Tuesday night.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/01/15/030115hnwsisos_1.html

Unless Im mistaken the US Government have intervened on a
number of cases especially in SOuth America in support of
proprietary technology ie M$. The obvious question is given
that Red Hat is a US based company why is not supported?

We need a section on our paper where we expand on the role of
the US government in favour of some but not all of the US
companies.

[PubSoft Subscription Info and list archive URL at end of this
post. (Unfortunately the list archives are *closed* to members
only and subscription requests must await admin approval before
the archives can be viewed.)]

Extract from "Why US gov reps mugged pro open source
declaration",
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29157.html:

<...>
If the objectives of the WSIS are to be fulfilled for the
developing world, then software has to be affordable, and
sufficiently open for developing countries to build their own
products, and have derived revenues spent locally, rather than
exported to the developed world.

Which is also a point of view, and a pretty reasonable one. In
supporting rather than just encouraging open source "where
appropriate," these delegations were taking on board the need
to localise expertise and revenues, and to provide a counter to
existing commercial software, which is already established as a
standard. Not many people actually pay for Windows in much of
Asia, but they sure as hell use it, and in that sense it's
difficult for open source to compete unaided. So both sides see
themselves as trying to level the playing field, and that will
surely result in tears.

Nor is that the only area the US government and the software
industry will find themselves ranged against developing
countries. Elsewhere in the declaration, under "Ensuring
balance between intellectual property rights (IPR) and public
interest," we read:

"While intellectual property rights play a vital role in
fostering innovation in software, e-commerce and associated
trade and investment, there is a need to promote initiatives to
ensure fair balance between IPRs and the interests of the users
of information, while also taking into consideration the global
consensus achieved on IPR issues in multilateral organizations.

"Copyright holders and distributors of content should be
cognizant of the need to ensure that content is accessible for
all, including persons with disabilities. In this connection,
access requirements should be included in legal, regulatory and
policy frameworks, where appropriate."

We're pretty sure the words "copy left" didn't appear anywhere
in the draft before the US team got to it, but you can see a
storm brewing here. Wonder what they could possibly mean by
"access requirements"? IP recognition is again an area where
Microsoft et al and the US government will tend to work as a
team, as the government, obviously, is going to support US
companies in their efforts to stop rampant theft of their
products. But the more successful they are, the more expensive
the products get, so the more the open source issue gets
foregrounded. ®

* A while back we noted the ISC's,
http://theregister.co.uk/content/archive/28342.html, strangely
large and geographically diverse membership list. For some
strange reason, that page,
http://softwarechoice.org/about_steering.asp, now declares
itself under reconstruction, and the initiative members have
retreated into the shadows of anonymity. Spoilsports.

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