http://fsfeurope.org/documents/wiwo.en.html
Towards a
"World Intellectual Wealth Organisation"
Supporting the Geneva Declaration
The Geneva Declaration [1] is an impressive step towards the creation of
a broad coalition of people, organisations and countries [2] demanding
that the international community re-think the goals and mechanisms for
awarding monopoly control over different kinds of knowledge. It offers
many constructive, concrete suggestions for changes in WIPO goals,
policies and priorities, and provides ample and insightful arguments for
redesign of the copyright and patent bargains to better serve the public
interest of all of humankind.
We are convinced that new answers sometimes require new questions, not
more careful repetition of old questions. A World Intellectual Property
Organisation will always, understandably, lean towards applying the
pre-selected tool-set of monopolisation that it refers to as
Intellectual Property; a term that we find to be ideologically charged
and dangerously oblivious to the significant differences that exist
between the many areas of law that it tries to subsume.
While it may look at better, possibly more socially sustainable ways of
granting ownership-like monopolies over different forms of knowledge,
WIPO will not have an easy time looking for alternative solutions. WIPO
is not what we need.
We need a World Intellectual Wealth Organisation, dedicated to the
research and promotion of novel and imaginative ways to encourage the
production and dissemination of knowledge. Granting limited monopolies
and limited control over some kinds of knowledge may be part of this new
organisations tool-set, but not the only one, and maybe not even the
most important one.
We endorse and support the Geneva Declaration, and invite its drafters,
signatories, and the United Nations to start thinking now not only about
what the role of WIPO should be, but rather what kind of organisation we
need in its place.
References
[1] Geneva Declaration:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/genevadeclaration.html
[2] Proposal by Argentina and Brazil for the establishment of a
development agenda for WIPO:
http://www.wipo.int/documents/en/document/govbody/wo_gb_ga/pdf/wo_ga_31_11.…
Signatories
Organisations
* ANSOL - Associação Nacional para o Software Livre
* APRIL
* Asociación Software Libre y Patrimonio Intelectual Libre
* Assoli - Associazione Software Libero
* Free Software Foundation Europe
* Fundación Conocimiento Libre
* La Fundación Vía Libre
* Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan
* Movimento Costozero
* Netzwerk Neue Medien
* UKUUG - the UK's Unix and Open Systems User Group
* Verein zur Förderung Freier Software
* Vrijschrift
* WilhelmTux
* Ynternet.org - Free communication for communities
Individuals
* Alex Hudson
* Beatriz Busaniche
* Benoît Sibaud
* David Ayers
* Federico Heinz
* Francis MUGUET
* Frédéric Couchet
* Georg Greve
* Graham Seaman
* Jeroen Dekkers
* Jonas Oberg
* Marc SCHAEFER
* Markus Beckedahl
* Matthias Kirschner
* MJ Ray
* Pablo Machón
* Patrick Ohnewein
* Reinhard Müller
* Richard Stallman
* Rik van Riel
* Sébastien DINOT
* Simone Piccardi
* Stefano Maffulli
* Théo Bondolfi
* Volker Dormeyer
Hi all,
I am sure many of you will have seen the Geneva Declaration and may
even have supported it publicly.
A group of organisations and individuals felt that it was necessary to
support the Geneva Declaration and build upon it -- the result of this
initiative will be online at
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/wiwo.en.html
which already exists -- although I would like to ask you to not
publish it or link to it before tomorrow, Oct 14th, which is when it
will be officially released.
If you or your organisation wish to be among the initial signatories,
please send mail to
web(a)fsfeurope.org
until TONIGHT, 23:59.
Regards,
Georg
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)gnu.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Brave GNU World (http://brave-gnu-world.org)
Starting this november, I will be teaching a course in Free Software
philosophy and theory at the University of Göteborg, Sweden. Having
received some interest about this course from foreign students, we have
decided to give the course in English and invite students from other
countries to participate as well. The course is a distance learning
course, so students can participate from anywhere in the world.
Additional information about the course can be found here:
http://www.informatik.gu.se/eng/education/
Any help with dissiminating information about this course would be much
appreciated.
Thanks,
Jonas
1. FSFE self-conception
2. Is Microsoft happy that the FSFE is included in their appeals process?
3. FSFE intervenes at the European Court
4. FSFE at the Ars Electronica
5. GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, Italy
6. FSFE at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
7. Spanish press release mailing list now available
1. FSFE self-conception
In the course of improving the "About" section of the web site, a page
was added explaining the self conception of the FSFE. We recommend
that everybody interested in the work of the FSFE may like to read this
page, as it explains the philosophy behind the FSFE:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/about/self-conception.en.html
2. Is Microsoft happy that the FSFE is included in their appeals process?
As mentioned in the July newsletter, the EU Commission invited the
FSFE to support their position in the Microsoft trial. Handelsblatt,
Germany's most influential economic newspaper, reported that Microsoft
wrote a two page letter to the European Court trying to argue that
FSFE should not be involved. When the Handelsblatt raised this issue
with Microsoft, its spokesperson denied that any such attempt had been
made and that Microsoft believes more third parties would be beneficial
to the case. No comment was made whether this was related to Microsoft
asking that third parties in support of the Commission should pay
Microsoft's lawyers.
3. FSFE intervenes at the European Court
Meanwhile, Carlo Piana and Jeremy Allison delivered FSFE's first
statement; they also represent the Samba team in this trial.
While they explained why Microsoft has to disclose the specifications
of the network protocols used in MS-Windows networks to enable ongoing
competition, they also made clear that they do not request Microsoft
to publish source code of their Windows Operating Systems. The hearing
will continue on 1 October 2004 and the final decision should be made
public around the end of October 2004.
4. FSFE at the Ars Electronica
During Ars Electronica 2004 in Linz, Austria, Georg Greve participated
in a discussion focusing on "digital commons" together with Lawrence
Lessig. Before this there was the "Netvision" prize award ceremony,
which was awarded to the "Creative Commons" organisation.
5. GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, Italy
The FSFE presented a booth at the GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, and
Stefano Maffulli gave two speeches at that event, presenting the
activities of FSFE. Several companies contacted the FSFE staff there
to express their interest to release their software under a Free
license and asked for help with that goal. Commercial Free Software
is seen more and more as a realistic business opportunity.
6. FSFE at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Georg Greve participated in the Expert Meeting on Free Software at the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva,
Switzerland. In the panel on economic perspectives of Free Software,
he spoke about Free Software and its role in advancing the information
society, in particular in developing countries.
7. Spanish press release mailing list now available
The FSFE has now set up a mailing list where you can subscribe to
receive its press releases in Spanish. This is the sixth language
press releases will be available in:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/press/
Help with the necessary translations for all the languages is still
very welcome:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Hi,
The Portuguese parliament (Assembleia da Republica) recently passed an
advisory motion on free software (proposed by the Communist Party, but
with cross party support). You can find the original at
http://www.pcp.pt/ar/legis-9/projres/pjr255.htm. There is
some (portuguese language) discussion of the resolution, together with
the text of supporting speeches by other deputies in the ANSOL free
software list
http://listas.ansol.org/pipermai/ansol-geral/2004-September/
I haven't seen anything about this in any language other than
Portuguese, so I thought I would translate it.
The translation below is completely unofficial; I hope it's of some
interest for the list, but you might want to get it verified by a native
Portuguese speaker before using it for anything..
Best
Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Draft resolution no. 255/1X
Recommends that the government take measures to develop Free Software in
Portugal
1. Software plays an ever more pivotal role in administrative,
political, and economic activities. As such it is essential to guarantee
that these activities - which are fundamental for the development and
sovereignty of the country - should not be subject to a monopoly of
private bodies, and that it should be possible to guarantee the
independence of the state in relation to proprietary formats and
software suppliers who may close or discontinue their software at any
moment.
2. The concept of Free Software is based on four fundamental
principles of freedom for the user, defined by the 'Free Software
Foundation' in the following way:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to
your needs.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
neighbor.
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
Access to the source code is essential to make these four
freedoms possible.
3. Free Software, insofar as it guarantees access to the original
source code, not only allows this independence but also brings
significant savings when used in public administration, since it does
not require the payment of licences for its use. It also allows it to be
verified without question that the software fulfills only the tasks for
which it was designed, with no hidden functions which might place at
risk either sovereignty or the national economy.
4. Adaptation of the various resource centres for information
technology, in the framework of the public educational network, to
permit the mandatory availability of Free Software solutions for
students and teaching staff.
5. Inclusion of material relating to Free Software in the definition
of the various curricula and programmes for teaching of information
technology in primary and secondary education, identifying in the
curricula and programmes any currently existing references to products
or trade names of commercial software, with the aim of their compulsory
substitution by corresponding generic descriptions.
6. Establishment of research grants and support programmes for
research and development projects; translation into Portuguese
(converting into Portuguese the technical and scientific terminology
involved); and application of Free Software solutions, in the area of
higher education and research or scientific institutions.
7. Integration of the Free Software field in programmes for
encouragement and support for technological change, especially for SMEs,
as well as in initiatives for publicizing information technology to the
associational movement (youth, culture, sport, recreation etc).
8. Interoperability between different computing applications is
essential for the proper functioning of the state, and it is essential
that these are not dependent on the proprietary formats of private
companies. The initiative of the European Commission for the electronic
exchange of information between administrations (IDA) gives especial
relevance to the use of Free Software in this activity, having even
created a Free Software Observatory.
9. The 'eEurope 2005' programme of the European Union recommends the
use of open source software in various sectors, in particular e-government.
10. As well as take-up by public administration, it is also desireable
to motivate private companies to use this software model, as a way of
energizing the national economy and making it independent of private
monopolies.
11. Free Software is a source of work for Portuguese programmers as it
is for the micro, small, and medium portuguese computing enterprises;
not only at the level of software development but also in providing
technical support for these and other applications which have the same
philosophy of implementation and distribution.
12. The use of Free Software in teaching not only allows a reduction
of costs in the use of information technology, but also allows access to
detailed information on the inner workings of the software used by
computing students, guaranteeing an quality of opportunity in access
since the student is not compelled to pay a licence for its use outside
the school environment. It also ensures that the student does not become
a mere operator of applications from any multinational company, but
becomes a skilled technician, an essential factor in the development of
the country.
13. Free Software allows the easy translation into Portuguese of
existing programmes, since the translation is not dependent on the good
will of the supplying companies, or limited by any kind of licensing.
Therefore, taking into account the reasons laid out above, Parliament
resolves, under the terms of clause 5 article 166 of the Constitution of
the Portuguese Republic, to recommend that the Government carry out the
following measures:
1. Assembly of a 'White Book of Free Software in Portugal', which
(among other aims) evaluates the current personnel, surveys trials in
progress, and defines scenarios and lines of intervention.
2. Development of a programme of definition and staffing of pilot
projects for reference use of Free Software in public administratrion,
in particular within the scope of the Unit for Information and Knowledge
(UMIC), and of the Ministries of Culture, Education and Science, and
Higher Education.
3. Creation of a support service, staffed by UMIC, for technical
support to the implementation of Free Software solutions in public
administration.
4. Integration of the field of Free Software in the area of
incentives and programmes of support for administrative modernization of
local councils, including in particular technical support, logistics,
and training.
5. Establishment of mandatory access to source code and data formats
in the acquisition of computing solutions destined for use by public
administration and other government bodies, for the exercise of
sovereign functions and other areas of strategic importance.
6. Development of an 'online library' which systematizes and brings
up to date information on the range of Free Software solutions and
applications, with particular attention to those in the Portuguese language.
7. Adaptation of the various information technology resource centres
in the public schools network with the aim of compulsorily making
available Free Software solutions to students and teaching staff.
8. Inclusion of material relating to Free Software in the definition
of the various curricula and programmes for teaching of information
technology in primary and secondary education, while identifying
currently existing references in these curricula and programmes to trade
names and products of commercial software, with the aim of their
mandatory replacement by corresponding generic descriptions.
9. Establishment of research grants and support programmes for
research and development projects; translation into Portuguese
(converting the technical and scientific terms involved to Portuguese);
and application of Free Software solutions, in the area of higher
education and research and scientific institutes.
10. Integration of the Free Software field in programmes encouraging
and supporting technological change in companies, especially SMEs; as
also in initiatives to encourage information technology in the
associationist movement (youth, culture, sports, recreation, etc).
Assembly of the Republic, May 26 2004