US Copyright Lobby: FOSS "Weakens Software Industry"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 24th Feb 2010 22:23 UTC
GNU, GPL, Open Source The world is slowly and surely going crazy. I'm sure of it now. The US copyright lobby has officially gone totally and utterly nuts. Get this: they are trying to lobby the US government to equate encouraging the use of Free and open source software to undermining intellectual property rights, and to weakening the software industry. I wish I was making this stuff up.
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tomcat
Member since:
2006-01-06

"Sure, but adopting what amounts to protectionist policies does have trade ramifications.


To expand on this, I'm sure the U.S government has recommendations regarding which one of several different standards that should be used. Is that protectionist against companies that only makes product that conforms to other standards? This is essentially the same; a recommendation has been made with regards to what software should be used. "

I don't see any evidence that the commercial companies are asking for preferential treatment. They simply want the playing field to be even. What could possibly wrong with that? Evaluate the products on their own merits, not on some artificial constraint imposed by government law or regulation. It may well be that some of the evaluation criteria are support for open document formats, standard protocols, interop, etc. But simply gaming the system toward FOSS -- regardless of the suitability of the FOSS solution -- is just wrong.

Edited 2010-02-25 16:45 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

Soulbender Member since:
2005-08-18

They simply want the playing field to be even.


Do they? Or are they just unhappy with the fact that it is not favoring them and their products?

Evaluate the products on their own merits, not on some artificial constraint imposed by government law or regulation.


And how do we know this isn't exactly what these countries have done? Maybe these companies just don't like the criteria used since it isn't favoring them?

But simply gaming the system toward FOSS -- regardless of the suitability of the FOSS solution -- is just wrong.


Sure, but I see no proof that this is what has happened. And who's definition of "suitability" are we talking about here?

Edited 2010-02-25 18:29 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 3

tomcat Member since:
2006-01-06

Do they? Or are they just unhappy with the fact that it is not favoring them and their products?


Well, as I said, they're not asking for preference.

And how do we know this isn't exactly what these countries have done? Maybe these companies just don't like the criteria used since it isn't favoring them?


No, the problem is bigger than just FOSS. Indonesia apparently has a historical problem with respecting IP produced by other people. They were downgraded by the USTR to the Priority Watch List last year because government agencies were illegally installing pirated software on their computers in violation of international copyright law.

http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesia-to-erase-pirated-software...

Sure, but I see no proof that this is what has happened. And who's definition of "suitability" are we talking about here?


Wrong. There's plenty of proof.

http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-government-urged-to-move...

Reply Parent Score: 2

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ichi Member since:
2007-03-06

Well, asking for a level playing field is fair indeed, but they screw it when trying to get the "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 propertiy rights" into the mix.

Then again one could argue that if the IIPA actually meant to stand for fairness they should also bring to attention countries where government regulations favor proprietary software companies, as in Microsoft's contract in Switzerland.

Reply Parent Score: 3