[Ecommerce] Mr. Bad on US Officials Stomp On Free Software In International Star Chamber

[James Love]

Saw this on Dave Farber's list.

http://pigdog.org/auto/digital_gar_gar_gar/link/2781.html

US Officials Stomp On Free Software In International Star Chamber
2003-01-22 02:40:29

By Mr. Bad

Digital Gar Gar Gar!


So, I'm sitting on this beach on Ko Samet in Thailand today, drinking a 
Big Chang beer and picking up some rays. Yay for Thailand! Yay for beer! 
But I made a crucial mistake that has fucked up my mental equilibrium 
and forced me into the nearest thatched Internet hut (no shit -- it's 
really a hut): I bought a copy of the Bangkok Post, and now I'm all 
hopping mad.

Serious! I'm really in Thailand. It's great. You can buy all kinds of 
shit on the beach here. They have guys with great big baskets on yokes 
that walk around carrying fruit and beer and sticky rice in bamboo 
tubes. They give you massages or they can cook you a crab over a little 
hibachi fire. They even have newspapers, albeit a couple of days old. 
Which is what I read.

So, here's the deal: an assload of government ministerial officials from 
all over Asia are meeting in Tokyo this week to discuss the future of 
the Internet at the Information Society Regional Conference and gar gar 
gar. I know, I know: BORING ASS SHIT. I swear, I only started reading 
this article after I'd read everything else in the paper. Even all the 
local stories I didn't understand. Something about the words "regional 
conference" made me drift off and start looking for someone selling papayas.

Mmm. Papayas.

Oh, hey, but, back to the problem at hand: as you can read in the 
Infoworld article at the end of this story (sorry, the Bangkok Post 
hasn't updated their Web site yet with the article I read), the Regional 
Conference came up with one of those declarations that big governmental 
conferences always do: lots of words about bridging the digital divide 
and closer cooperation and free ice cream for everyone. But they also 
had a declaration to "support" Open Source software development and 
deployment in their governments and regions.

Beaujolais for them, I have to say. After all, governments around the 
world, like Germany, France, and India, are hopping on the Open Source 
bandwagon, as it makes a lot of sense for government use: saves money, 
allows customization, insures information security in the face of a 
brutal tech market, etc., etc. Hell, man, you can read about it yourself 
at EGovOS.org, an excellent Open-Source-for-governments advocacy site.

BUT, you see, BUT, there was a little hitch in the plan for everyone to 
put out their declaration and head back to their swanky hotels for a 
night of high-priced Japanese food-sex hookers. The hitch was that the 
US delegation -- delegates from the US Department of State, folks, 
people paid using our tax money -- demanded the removal of the clause 
for support of Open Source software. Apparently, the US government is 
OFFICIALLY AGAINST Free Software, and intends to block international 
efforts to support its use.

A compromise came about where the clause was left in, and the wording 
was changed from "support" to "encourage", but that's not really the 
point, here. Why the hell is the US Government OPPOSED to Free Software? 
Free Software is AMERICAN software. The idea STARTED here. We are the 
HOME and MORAL COMPASS POINT for the Free Software movement around the 
world. We are the fucking LEADERS of the FREE WORLD, dammit!

Thousands of American businesses and government organizations run, at 
least partly, on Free Software. Millions of Americans use it, directly 
or indirectly. Since when are we all against Free Software? When did we 
decide to try to discourage its use and development overseas?

The answer is, unfortunately, all too obvious: even delegates at the 
conference suspected that the government is trying to protect the 
business model of proprietary software companies such as Microsoft in 
the face of a newer, better model for using and making software. Since 
when is the STATE DEPARTMENT'S job to preserve faulty business models? 
Isn't that what the COMMERCE DEPARTMENT is all about? [All right, all 
right, that's a low blow. But still!]

The next question becomes this: how did this get to be policy for 
international relations? Who gave State Department factotums marching 
orders to STOP FREE SOFTWARE AT ALL COSTS? And, most important, why 
aren't organizations like the Free Software Foundation and the Open 
Source Initiative holding the government's feet to the fire on this 
issue? Actually, why aren't those groups already participating in the 
World Summit on the Information Society? What the hell is going on here?

Maybe somebody needs to straighten out our nation's diplomatic community 
that they are acting against the interests of thousands of businesses 
and millions of individuals here at home. That international development 
of Free Software helps all of us have better software, better computers, 
and consequently better lives. If American businesses that depend on 
proprietary business models are to compete with that, they should do it 
in the market, providing convincing incentives to the consumer and IT 
managers, rather than trying to squelch the idea of Free Software with 
shady backroom deals.

Anyways, these rent-a-computers are exorbitant. I've already spent the 
equivalent of FOUR papayas, just typing out this screed. So read this 
article yourself! Time to bust some heads! Let's sic Richard Stallman on 
those apparatchiks and see if they keep trying to downplay Freedom!

Check it out yourself


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technlogy
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040