When using open source makes you an enemy of the state

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: February 24, 2010 7:34:52 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] When using open source makes you an enemy of the state

When using open source makes you an enemy of the state
Posted by
Bobbie Johnson, San Francisco Tuesday 23 February 2010
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/23/opensource-intellectual-property>

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 theGoogle 
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 ofintellectual 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.

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