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Information Society: Voices from the
South
Summary of discussions on the
topic
'Freedom, rights, laws and ethics'
Prepared by Partha Pratim Sarker
Co-editor, Bytes for All
& Moderator, Information Society Discussion Forum
Time Frame: June 16 to July 31, 2003
Number of Subscribers (Until July 31): 372 members
Main theme line of
discussion
2. Freedom, rights, laws and ethics: How to address these issues for
Information Society in the South?
Sub-topics:
(2.A.) Community and Freedom
(2.B.) Development and
Self-Expression
(2.C.) Issue of Censorship and
Self-Censorship
(2.D.) Issue of Patent and
Copyright
(2.E.) Wi-fi, Internet and other
technology issues
(2.F.) Right to
Communicate
Sub-topic 2.D.
Issue of Patent and Copyright
Guido Sohne supported free software and open content system, as he
thinks 'free software operates by inclusion whereas the closed
knowledge neo-industrial complex operates by exclusion, leading to
their profits'. He also srejected the idea of intellectual property
rights and rests on the principle that there is no gain in it for us,
on the contrary, it will cost us, directly and indirectly. He added,
'developing countries should have free access to patent encumbered
technologies that can be used for development for the purposes of
commercial, government or educational use, including the right to
export products created using these patents'.
Bala Pillai from Sydney, Australia, supports Sohne's idea and
expresses the view that majority of intellectual property comes in the
form of Michael Jackson records, Harry Potter books, Monopoly games,
aeroplane spare-parts (98% of whose value is intellectual property),
defence purchases, university courses, brands etc.
But Yaacov Illand from Kenya thinks that abolishing software patents
won't bring any benefits for the South. He argues that, if someone in a
poor country creates great software but can't patent it, it will be
quickly snapped up by a large software corporation, likely in a rich
country, that has far better ability to provide support, do upgrades,
etc. Refering about GPL, he argues that, 'GPL requires copyright. And
GPL is much stronger than no copyright at all, because it requires the
open-sourcing of derivative products. If you abolish software
copyright, you abolish GPL and companies can take open source software,
modify it and distribute only the binaries, having locked them with
product keys, crypto, on-demand server-based use, etc'.
Go to other sub-topics:
(2.A.) Community and
Freedom
(2.B.) Development and Self-Expression
(2.C.) Issue of Censorship and
Self-Censorship
(2.E.) Wi-fi, Internet and other
technology issues
(2.F.) Right to
Communicate
Information Society:
Voices from the South is an online discussion forum run by Digital Opportunity
Channel in partnership with Bytes for All. The forum will run
until December 2003 and will discuss a number of broad themes related
to the emerging information society and the process of the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS).
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