Open Source Software Turns Countries Into Pirate Havens
Many governments are promoting the use of free and Open Source software, a move that stings the US pro-copyright lobby. In a recommendation to the US Trade Representative, lobbyists have now asked to put countries that promote Open Source software on a watchlist of capitalist enemies.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is a coalition of many pro-copyright groups including the MPAA, RIAA and the Business Software Association. Its aim is to protect their businesses from threats to their copyright exploitation models, and to convince lawmakers to clamp down on piracy.
Every year the outfit produces a set of recommendations for the US Government. It produces a list of countries that are a threat, recommending the US Trade Representative to put these on a watchlist. Usually, this has something to do with weak copyright laws but this year they see a news threat in addition to that.
Open Source software.
In other words, Firefox, WordPress, Ubuntu and Open Office are the software equivalent of the axis of evil.
Countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and India should be placed on the watchlist for their Open Source support according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance. With similar initiatives countries such as the UK, The Netherlands and others may soon follow.
Open Source software “simply weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness” while “it fails to build respect for intellectual property rights,” the IIPA recommendation says. “It encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations.”
Oh really?
What they really mean to say of course is that Open Software is saving the tax payers a lot of money, money that usually goes into the pockets of the some of the major software companies.
You can read more details on this absurd move at the excellent Guardian blog.
while the big commercial companies that produce proprietary software often employ hundreds (or thousands) of people and contribute a lot of tax to the government.
but of course open source software should stay, it makes the proprietary software developers have to up their game to make their product better than the best FOSS stuff out there, e.g. Microsoft Office 2007 is great IMO and wouldn’t have developed into such a sleek product without the nudge in the ribs from OOo.
“contribute a lot of tax to the government.” does not mean anything, just as “creating jobs”. just typical corporations/lobbyists-argument. building bombs creates also jobs and contributes taxes.
FOSS-developers are usually also tax-payers. Foss-users the same, they just spend the saved money differently. And they do not want to feed the fat “investor”-pigs.
a/s/l, I couldn’t agree with you more! I am a strong believer in both open source and proprietary software. While developers of proprietary software should have certain rights to protect their intellectual property and give their company a competitive advantage, I also believe open source challenges these companies to keep innovating. Doing so allows software to be continuously improved, benefiting the software industry as a whole. Open source software provides alternatives for those that may not be able to shell out hundreds of dollars for a Microsoft or Adobe product, while proprietary software can (sometimes) offer the latest and greatest features.
Typical FUD one would expect out of a marketing department and since this organisation is nothing but a big PR association it really isn’t so surprising.
The trade representative will just have to balance this opinion with (hopefully) others.
But it’s still kind of strange seeing this “politics as usual”.
Holy fuck! Google, Yahoo!, Facebook are all screwed… (they use free software, btw)
Microshaft said it would rather someone pirate their product than use a free/other competitor.
Wasn’t it a month ago when there was a news story about white house starting to use Drupal?
Quite frankly the governnments concerned should simply return the lunacy by placing the US Trade Representative and any supporting organisations on their Proscribed Terrorist Groups list and making membership of such organisation illegal in their countries.
I think I’m going back to Linux now. Been using Leopard for a year or so, but seeing this crap I was reminded of why I went open source all those years ago.
Oh and I’ll set up my own torrent site. Just to spite the stupidity.
So…the people charged with protecting peoples’ intellectual property rights is calling those that exercise the right to license their work as they choose enemies of capitalism. Disgusting.
I no longer have an ounce of respect for these people saying that DMCA enforcement protects starting bands.
I love open source and copyright software. I agree with a/s/l on FOSS keeping microfail innovating. Both have a right under copyright law to license under a restrictive license or permissive licenses like the GPL.
This time the anti-piracy groups have gone too far, I really hope that they get whats coming to them.
Isn’t the whole idea of being competitive to match and beat other products that are similar to yours? If an OSS alternative becomes more widely used than one of your paid applications, aren’t you meant to make that paid application better to compete with the OSS alternative and give people a reason to BUY the program? It’s a changing market, and companies are expected to adapt, or die, it’s up to them. For example, adobe still manages to support Photoshop above GIMP. But if VLC and MPC HC are used more widely than WMP, aren’t the WMP devs meant to try and beat the features of the OS media players?
/rant on
Personally I think that the IIPA should go on the other countries’ watchlist. This organization is only in it for themselves and the money, not improving the quality of life in any way shape or form. I hate sounding like a conspiracy theorist but I can’t be that far off on my assessment, no?
Do we really need close-source software? What more do we get out of it? I know plenty of programs that are open source but are equally proprietary in the rights given for distribution. In fact, copyright laws should be focusing on people stealing from open-source projects not the closed-source ones.
Businesses can operate equally well on open-source models as then can on current closed-source models. In fact, I would argue that allowing the general public to analyze the code would mean fewer bugs and faster turnaround times on bugfixes improving the quality of the software in the process. This saves the company testing / debugging dollars. How exactly is that a bad thing?
Personally, I think this whole things just stems from laziness pure and simple. The big businesses are sloppy in their copyrights as well as the code that they’ve written and they want to keep it that way. They don’t want to provide software that works the first time and doesn’t require users to constantly upgrade (i.e. Microsoft). The want to suck every last penny they can from consumers without having any consequences for poorly developed products.
/rant off
I do love open office :) lol
@a/s/l:
Mozilla is a corporation that employs people to work on Firefox. Most of OpenOffice developers are paid by Sun to work on OOo. IBM employs many people to work on open source software. So does Red Hat.
All these companies paying taxes and providing jobs to people. Your argument has no merit.
No fate in the government if they agree with these advising.
Of course The International Intellectual Property Alliance wants to protect their dominance, gain more control to dominate and consolidate their wealth. Of course they lobby ((legal bribe the pol’s) tell them that it protects lower and mid-level jobs that are the easiest for Government get taxes from. While they lobby and use high priced layers to secure loopholes for the corporations and high level Officers to shield hide divert as much wealth as possible from the government.
One more thing they inform State & Local Politicians who are looking to fix big budget deficits that the states local governments can get more sales tax revenue via sale tax from software sales.
Democrat or Republican there are enough of them on the “dole” lobby (legal bribe) Democrat v Republican is just a game to divert attention from the voters and pacify them. Don’t think for a moment that Obama doesn’t have some of the same strings pulling him that pulled Bush too. The Rich and powerful are really running the show in many parts of the world.
Go to hell. These idiots wants more money. thats why they doing this crap work
Why just open source? Why not free software in general?
And as well as saving a lot of people a lot of money, open source software is also great for amateur programmers. It allows them to see how certain things in a program are done. It also can give a starting place for someone to work off to create a new project.
A dying mosquito exclaimed
“A chemist has poisoned my brain!”
The cause of his sorrow
Was para-dichloro-
Diphenyl-trichloroethane
Wow, I`m shocked. And disgusted. Copyright needs to be revised badly to eliminate such absurdities.
I`m with a/s/l. Competition is everything. But open source does generate jobs…
This is just another proof on how much of a failure the current business model for digital media as a whole is.
And I thought I had seen everything…
this would make most of the internet illegal as the open source program, Apache, is the (by far) web server of choice. soon they’ll come crashing through your door for surfing the web. :-(
I will never pay for software when free alternatives are available! – I love free software. :)
That is why I tend to favour SSuite Office’s free office suites. No trials, no registering your personal information, no strings attached at all. Just free office software. {www.ssuitesoft.com}
Viva free and open software!
[...] Publicat la 04 martie 2010 Raportul Special 301 este un document anual destinat guvernului american ?i întocmit de c?tre IIPA (Alian?a Interna?ional? pentru Proprietate Intelectual?), organiza?ie printre ai c?rei membri se num?r? ?i MPAA ?i RIAA, iar acest document analizeaz? “eficien?a [implement?rii] drepturilor de proprietate intelectual?” pe glob. Documentul are ?i o sec?iune (list?) special? cu ??ri considerate permisive cu cei care încalc? drepturile de autor. _ Unele criterii pt includerea în acea list? sunt îns? absurde. De exemplu IIPA dore?te ad?ugarea Indoneziei pe list? deoarece guvernul încurajeaz? (nu oblig?, doar încurajeaz?) adoptarea programelor open-source în cadrul structurilor statului, pentru a reduce cheltuielile bugetare. IIPA consider? îns? c? o asemenea recomandare “pur ?i simplu sl?be?te industria softurilor ?i submineaz? competitivitatea pe termen lung deoarece creeaz? o preferin?? artificial? pentru companii ce ofer? programe open-source ?i servicii conexe.” Repet, guvernul a emis doar o recomandare, f?r? caracter coercitiv, pentru a reduce costurile ?i nivelul pirateriei. Totu?i, IIPA, consider? c? dac? încurajezi institu?iile publice s? utilizeze alternative gratis legitime, atunci desconsideri “valoarea crea?iilor intelectuale”. _ Astfel potrivit IIPA, doar proprietatea intelectual? contra cost merit? luat? în considerare ?i protejat?. Dac? ceva e gratis, pe model open-source, este în aceea?i barc? cu pirateria, iar Firefox, Ubuntu ?i Open Office devin Axa R?ului în materie de software. Bun? logic?… _ PS. IIPA consider? ?i Canada o ?ar?-problem? dpdv al propriet??ii intelectuale. Culmea e c?, un studiu f?cut pe 125 de ??ri pentru a vedea gradul de protec?ie a drepturilor la proprietate a plasat Canada pe locul 12 (SUA e pe 15), iar la capitolul Proprietate Intelectual?, Canada e pe locul 13, al?turi de ??ri precum Fran?a, Noua Zeeland? sau Marea Britanie. Studiul avea printre sursele pricipale de date chiar IIPA, aceia care ar pune Canada mai degrab? al?turi de ??ri precum India, Indonezia, Rusia sau China, spunând c? nu protejeaz? proprietatea intelectual?. _ Surse: Guardian, GamePolitics, Michael Geist, Freak Bits [...]
OK, this proves (again) they just want to have as much money as possible, no matter what…