[Nemesis6]

The US copyright lobby has long argued against open source software - now Indonesia's in the firing line for encouraging the idea in government departments

It's only Tuesday and already it's been an interesting week for the world of digital rights. Not only did the British government changed the wording around its controversial 'three strikes' proposals, but the secretive anti-counterfeiting treaty, Acta, was back in the headlines. Meanwhile, a US judge is still deliberating over the Google book settlement.

As if all that wasn't enough, here's another brick to add to the teetering tower of news, courtesy of Andres Guadamuz, a lecturer in law at the University of Edinburgh.

Guadamuz has done some digging and discovered that an influential lobby group is asking the US government to basically consider open source as the equivalent of piracy - or even worse.

What?

It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software.

What's Special 301? It's a report that examines the "adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights" around the planet - effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure - often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods - to try and force governments to change their behaviours.

Now, even could argue that it's no surprise that the USTR - which is intended to encourage free market capitalism - wouldn't like free software, but really it's not quite so straightforward.

I know open source has a tendency to be linked to socialist ideals, but I also think it's an example of the free market in action. When companies can't compete with huge, crushing competitors, they route around it and find another way to reduce costs and compete. Most FOSS isn't state-owned: it just takes price elasticity to its logical conclusion and uses free as a stick to beat its competitors with (would you ever accuse Google, which gives its main product away for free, of being anti-capitalist?).

Still, in countries where the government has legislated the adoption of FOSS, the position makes some sense because it hurts businesses like Microsoft. But that's not the end of it.

No, the really interesting thing that Guadamuz found was that governments don't even need to pass legislation. Even a recommendation can be enough.

Example: last year the Indonesian government sent around a circular to all government departments and state-owned businesses, pushing them towards open source. This, says the IIPA, "encourages government agencies to use "FOSS" (Free Open Source Software) with a view toward implementation by the end of 2011, which the Circular states will result in the use of legitimate open source and FOSS software and a reduction in overall costs of software".

Nothing wrong with that, right? After all, the British government has said it will boost the use of open source software.

But the IIPA suggested that Indonesia deserves Special 301 status because encouraging (not forcing) such takeup "weakens the software industry" and "fails to build respect for intellectual property rights".

From the recommendation:

The Indonesian government's policy... simply weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness by creating an artificial preference for companies offering open source software and related services, even as it denies many legitimate companies access to the government market.

Rather than fostering a system that will allow users to benefit from the best solution available in the market, irrespective of the development model, it encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations.

As such, it fails to build respect for intellectual property rights and also limits the ability of government or public-sector customers (e.g., State-owned enterprise) to choose the best solutions.

Let's forget that the statement ignores the fact that there are plenty of businesses built on the OSS model (RedHat, Wordpress, Canonical for starters). But beyond that, it seems astonishing to me that anyone should imply that simply recommending open source products - products that can be more easily tailored without infringing licensing rules - "undermines" anything.

In fact, IP enforcement is often even more strict in the open source community, and those who infringe licenses or fail to give appropriate credit are often pilloried.

If you're looking at this agog, you should be. It's ludicrous.

But the IIPA and USTR have form here: in recent years they have put Canada on the priority watchlist.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/23/opensource-intellectual-property

So when you use open source, you're an enemy of capitalism, just like when you download music, you're a communist, and when you drive alone, you're a Nazi. Hooray for the MPAA, the RIAA, and the corporations ideals they stand for!  

[Aardwolf]

Dooooomed.

[Locutus of Borg]

The proletariat shall rule!

[Herra Tohtori]

Freedom is merely privilege extended. Unless enjoyed by one and all.

[karajorma]

You are free to do what we tell you.

[S-99]

Not sure how much of this is ****. The US government already uses a lot of OSS because of the fact that many times it can be better than closed source alternatives and is also either cheaper or free.

Also, if the government used just closed source software, that would be a bad idea. OSS tends to get bug fixed and security holes plugged faster than closed source alternatives. Just imagine if a government just used macintoshes with macosx. Given apple's record for being slow on the up take for fixing problems in it's software, that'd be a bad idea.

Or imagine if a government relied upon microsoft's bitlocker (****locker) hard drive encryption (the one with the back door built in that gives police access to your encrypted stuff, which also equals eventually hackers being able to use the back door).

Not all closed source software is bad. If this is true information what nemesis posted, then it's extremely anticompetitive and would be hypocritical most likely. OSS tends to be linked with socialist ideals? I guess in the article it does, stupid trash; in an article you can view and link anything you like together for stirring up attention and feelings.

[TrashMan]

 

This...is insanity!

[Nuke]

you think nasa runs windows

[Wobble73]

you think nasa runs windows

Nah! they still use MS-DOS! 

 

[Nemesis6]

you think nasa runs windows

Nah! they still use MS-DOS!  

 

Reaching for the stars with a pinky finger, huh?  

I'm sorry, Dos! Don't ever change, you're perfect the way you are. They're just jealous!

[BloodEagle]

You know, DOS is a good OS.  It just isn't user-friendly from the get-go.

[NGTM-1R]

You know, DOS is a good OS.  It just isn't user-friendly from the get-go.

DOS is like Linux-lite?

[Rodo]

It's obviously a stupid point, corporations do not fail to sale a product because of Free software taking their share of market, they fail because their products are not worthy the price, they have two options: Adapt or declare bankruptcy.

Till they decide I'll apply my own life philosophy:
It's ok, Until they f* with me.

[TESLA]

This...is insanity!

This is SPARTA!!!!!!!

But yeah, your right. Its nuts.
I love open source. Using it for charity work with computers in parts of Africa and Asia

[el_magnifico]

It's obviously a stupid point, corporations do not fail to sale a product because of Free software taking their share of market, they fail because their products are not worthy the price, they have two options: Adapt or declare bankruptcy.

Which is, ironically, what you're supposed to do if you really consider yourself a capitalism supporter.

Some businessmen and enterpreneurs need more courage.

---

Off-topic, glad to see I'm not the only spanish speaking person around here.

[TrashMan]

This...is insanity!

This is RIIA!!!!!!!

Fixed that for you.

[IronBeer]

Ugggh. Lobbying.... you wanna know what's wrong with America? Looky there.

[Colonol Dekker]

You are free to do what we tell you.

 
I love that song. We want your soul remix in 'as heard on radio soulwax' too many DJ's.
 
 

[Rodo]

Off-topic, glad to see I'm not the only spanish speaking person around here.

[S-99]

Adapt or declare bankruptcy.

Better to do either of these instead of being a whiny *****.

Whiny *****es in this case be the RIAA and the MPAA which are totally useless today. They possibly can't just stick to movies and music?

Makes me wonder if in the future they'll use software patenting to help further their argument. Software, something that should never be able to be patented.