[Ecommerce] IP Watch re Open source & proprietary models in WSIS language

[Manon Ress]

IP Watch 10/10/05
Open Source Agreed In UN Information Society Summit Preparations

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D98&res=3D1024_ff&print=3D0
Internet and Communication Technology
posted by William New @ 10:17 am

Encouragement for the use of free and open source software and open
standards for science and technology has quietly worked its way into
the draft texts being prepared for the November second phase of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Such ideas have gained significant support in recent years as
potentially low-cost, easy-access solutions for developing countries,
but as they are put forward in the WSIS context they are balanced by
stronger calls for proprietary approaches.

The draft WSIS texts are lengthy and detailed, and intellectual
property (IP) issues play a comparatively small role overall, but the
stakes are high enough to draw top government IP officials and
industry lobbyists to the meetings. Agreement on the issue was
reached at the 19-30 September WSIS preparatory committee meeting
held in Geneva. The provisions will be included in those forwarded to
senior officials at the 16-18 November summit in Tunis.

In the introductory chapter of the texts, called the =93political
chapeau=94 an agreement was reached on paragraph 21 after bolstering
the neutrality of the reference to different types of software
models. According to one participating official, proposed text
referencing free and open source was put forward by the Group of
Latin American and Caribbean countries with the support of Canada,
China, South Africa, and the Arab Group represented by Egypt. The
text reflected regional agreements. The official said, =93You could say
we have the support of 3 billion people.=94

Modifications to make the language more technology neutral were
sought by the United States, the source said. But informal charges
that efforts were made to drop references to free and open source
from the summit=92s second phase could not be confirmed.

At least one senior lobbyist from proprietary software maker
Microsoft, Fred Tipson, made the trip from Washington. The US
government had an extensive team of diplomats and technical experts,
several of whom were shuttling back and forth to the nearby General
Assembly of the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation.

During the preparatory committee meeting, developing countries
threatened to disagree if they perceived the modifications to throw
the balance of the provision too far in the direction of proprietary
models, an official said. But agreement appears to have been reached
with only one notable modification: the addition of the phrase, =93in
ways that reflect the possibilities of different software models=94
after the reference to free and open source software.

Paragraph 21 of the political chapeau now reads: =93Our conviction that
governments, the private sector, civil society, the scientific and
academic community, and users can utilize various technologies and
licensing models, including those developed under proprietary schemes
and those developed under open-source and free modalities, in
accordance with their interests and with the needs to have reliable
services and implement effective programmes for their people. Taking
into account the importance of proprietary software in the markets of
the countries, we reiterate the need to encourage and foster
collaborative development, inter-operative platforms and free and
open source software, in ways that reflect the possibilities of
different software models, notably for education, science and digital
inclusion programs. (Agreed)=94

A side note is that the American spelling of the word =93programs=94 at
the end only appears in the latest version, having replaced the
British =93programmes=94 (which is still used earlier in the paragraph),
further suggesting the modification was a US proposal.

Also in the political chapeau, paragraph 11 states: [We affirm that
the sharing and strengthening of global knowledge for development can
be enhanced by removing obstacles to equitable access to information
for economic, social, political, health, cultural, educational and
scientific activities and by facilitating access to public domain
information, including by universal design and use of assistive
technologies, in this context we underline that media play an
important role.] The paragraph has gone through several changes and
remains in brackets.

Open Source As A Measure For Development

The open-source issue also appears alongside other hotly debated
=93measures to promote development=94 like interconnection costs (the
cost to complete a call within a country) in paragraph 70 of the
latest version of chapter 3, which itself is the highly debated
Internet governance section. (Officials agreed at the preparatory
committee meeting to leave Internet governance for experts meeting
just prior to the Tunis summit. All other issues will continue to be
negotiated by the less-technical Geneva-based missions up to the
Tunis summit).

Chapter 3, paragraph 70 states: =93We reaffirm our commitment to
turning the digital divide into digital opportunity, and we commit to
ensuring harmonious and equitable development for all. We commit to
foster and provide guidance on development areas in the broader
Internet governance arrangements, and to include, amongst other
issues, international interconnection costs, capacity-building and
technology / know-how transfer. We encourage the realization of
multilingualism in the Internet development environment, and we
support the development of software that renders itself easily to
localisation, and enables the user to choose appropriate solutions
from different software models including open-source, free and
proprietary software. (Agreed)=94

The final reference to software, found in Chapter 1, paragraph 7.e,
does not explicitly mention open versus proprietary. It calls for
achieving internationally-agreed development goals, including the
Millennium Development Goals, through a series of steps including
=93promoting public policies aimed at providing affordable access to
hardware as well as software, connectivity, increasingly converging
technological environment, capacity-building and local content.=94 The
provision is not in brackets, signalling that it is agreed.

Nothing Agreed Till All Agreed?

David Gross, the US lead delegate, told reporters during the
preparatory committee meeting that =93none of the language is formally
agreed to until all of the language is agreed.=94

Further creating an environment in each country for continued global
growth of the Internet and of information technology is paramount for
the United States. But the US must be convinced that the UN is not
creating =93backdoor=94 ways to regulate sectors, Gross said. In
particular, he referenced the proposed creation of a forum for
Internet governance issues, perhaps the most debated issue of the
summit.

A dramatic proposal by the European Union to move many of the core
functions of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) under a =93new international co-operation model=94 attracted most
of the outside attention of third preparatory committee meeting as it
created a division with the US, which has a contract with ICANN to
oversee much of the technical operation of the Internet.

It is less clear whether the EU=92s departure from the US position
extends to the free and open source versus proprietary software
issue. But Europe=92s renewed effort to pursue a legal challenge of
Microsoft might give some indication.


************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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