[Ecommerce] A few details of Microsoft's lobbying against WIPO event

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	A few details of Microsoft's lobbying against WIPO event
Date: 	Wed, 20 Aug 2003 18:44:35 -0400
From: 	James Love <james.love@cptech.org>
To: 	random-bits@lists.essential.org



>From the TechDaily article, it appears as though WIPO had received a 
number of calls in opposition to the meeting on open collaborative 
efforts to create public goods.  Microsoft has been I believe the main 
private sector actor in this (even though the request for the meeting 
was quite broader than free/open software).   One group active in 
opposing the WIPO event was BSA, a group often run as if it is a 
subsidiary of Microsoft.  BSA's Emory Simon was making calls and taking 
meetings with senior US government officials to oppose the meeting..  
Jeri Clausing, a former NYT reporter now working for BSA was calling 
reporters to tell them that WIPO had cancelled the meeting, and Jeri 
also told at least one reporter she had correspondence that WIPO had 
sent to me, which I found somewhat surprising.  (In this case, just a 
letter that seemed like a standard acknowledgement of the request, that 
Jeri claimed was something more).     According to Jeri (whom I called), 
Mario Correa from BSA was also working to block the WIPO meeting.   
Mario is the head of "software policy" for BSA.  Mario has been active 
in opposing government proposals to require open source software 
procruement (see below).  Another Micosoft agent who appears to have 
been instrumental in raising the spector of that open/free software was 
a violation of the GATT was long time Micorosoft defender Jonathan 
Zuck.   Zuck's group ACT (web page doesn't work well with Mozilla, so 
use MS's EI) features an article by former USPTO and WIPO offical and 
recent big pharma lobbyist Dick Wilder about the "lessons the Open 
Source community can learn from the SCO/IBM lawsuit."   Act has opposed 
goverment rules to favor open source software development and also 
claims such rules are a GATT violation.   jamie

http://global.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/2003-06-12.1653.phtml
BSA Testimony on Federal Policy and Open Source Software before the 
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Prepared Remarks of Mario Correa
Director of Software Policy
Business Software Alliance (BSA)

Before the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Federal Policy and Open Source Software

June 12, 2003




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