Since 1988, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has released an annual Special 301 Report which “examines in detail the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights” for every country in the world. The intention is to classify countries that either encourage or turn a blind eye to intellectual property piracy and countries can be put on a “Watch List” or “Priority Watch List”. This designation can then be used to pressure countries during trade negotiations.

Andres Guadamuz, a lecturer in law at the University of Edinburgh, recently noticed that the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has been lobbying US Trade Representative Ron Kirk to designate countries that have mandated the use of free software (specifically, Brazil, Indonesia and India) to be placed on the Special 301 Watch List. The IIPA is a private sector coalition of trade associations, including the Business Software Alliance, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); these names are familiar to digital freedom supporters as cartels hell-bent on using their power to suffocate internet freedoms and to change the course of humanity’s path towards information-based societies in the interest of their enormous profiteering.

The assertion that a country’s choice to use free software is equivalent to illegal piracy is an absurdity and a desperate response to the the free software revolution happening throughout the world. In the 498-page Special 301 report released by the IIPA, they attack Brazil’s policy of mandating the use of free software on page 183 as a reason to keep it on the watchlist:

“Government software procurement: The Brazilian Government should be encouraged to continue its efforts to implement effective software asset management practices in its public ministries and agencies, while avoiding mandates for procurement of software based on the model of development or the business model of the developer.”

On page 170, the IIPA clarifies its demands of the Brazilian government:

“Avoid legislation on the mandatory use of open source software by government agencies and government controlled companies.”

Then, the IIPA takes us to Indonesia. Starting on page 79, they attempt to form a coherent argument about how mandating a switch to open source software is somehow an act against US trade interests:

“[I]n March 2009, the Ministry of Administrative Reform (MenPAN) issued Circular Letter No. 1 of 2009 to all central and provincial government offices including State-owned enterprises, endorsing the use and adoption of open source software within government organizations. While the government issued this circular in part with the stated goal to ‘reduc[e] software copyright violation[s],’ in fact, by denying technology choice, the measure will create additional trade barriers and deny fair and equitable market access to software companies.”

Huh? It’s as if the IIPA forgot that plenty of US companies sell open source software — a fact that they probably “forgot” because no open source software company is paying them off. Why is this form of institutionalized bribery accepted? The IIPA goes on to demand that Indonesia rescind this order on page 80:

“IIPA requests that the government of Indonesia take the following actions, which would result in the most significant near term commercial benefits to the copyright industries: […] Rescind March 2009 MenPAN circular letter endorsing the use and adoption of open source software […]”

The IIPA’s war against the free software revolution then takes us to the Philippines on page 148:

“IIPA was concerned regarding reports of consideration of a Free Open Source Software bill which would require government offices to use open source software. Passage of that bill would deny technology choice regarding software usage and ultimately would stunt the growth of the IT industry in the Philippines.”

Thailand’s commitment to open source is attacked on page 353:

“Among other market access restrictions to be addressed, reverse proposed policy mandating use of open source software, and, e.g., requiring bundling of government funded computers and computers for schools with open source software; maintain neutral policies with respect to technology choice.”

Vietnam is instructed to avoid open source on page 396: “Cease government-endorsed open source preference policy which is limiting technology choice in Vietnam.”

And, Ecuador is also cited for dangerously choosing open source software on page 453: “Most of USTR’s concerns were directed at patent issues, but one major copyright problem highlighted involved a poorly drafted provision in the Education Law which appears to allow free software to educational institutions. Due to their concerns, USTR moved Ecuador back to the Watch List […]”

The IIPA Report makes a few things very clear. First, although this is already well-known, the software industry is scared to death of open source software and must resort to strong-arming as it’s only means of competing with it. Second, free software is spreading like wildfire all over the world as the smart defense against the proprietary software industry. And, finally, we can see why free software for taxpayers is not gaining traction in the United States, where industry lobby groups have a much easier time bribing decision-makers.

Mercosur is the South American largest trad bloc, the full members are Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (Venezuela application for full membership is still under process) with the associate members: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The 37th summit of Mercosur took place in Paraguay during July 23/24.

This was the ‘governments summit’ where the leaders from each country met to discuss trades and resolve conflicts while focusing on the welfare and development of the continent. An article from Buenos Aires Heraldsuch points out some high marks from the summit such as an unified stand in defense of democratic institutions, as a result of the condemnation of the military coup in Honduras and the demand for Zelaya to be put back in his position. Also, Brazil and Paraguay finally came to an agreement about Itaipu’s power plant, increasing Paraguay’s profits which was more than fair since they were selling power way below the market price to Brazil for decades. A deal that was made during Paraguay and Brazill’s dictatorships.

A couple of days before the Mercosur’s summit, took place the Mercosur Social and Solidarity Program Summit. Where NGO’s and social movements could meet and debate a common agenda of actions to be taken by each group in their respective countries. The topics where divided by tables of discussion, where the Table 6 debated about “New IT’s, Digital Inclusion and Education”, each country presented the results of their work and all of them had projects using free software.

The final resolution recommend the governments members of Mercosur to support the Law Project presented to PARLASUR (Mercosur Parliament) which proposes the adoption of Free Software with emphasis on education to achieve social inclusion throughout the region. They propose to the governments of the region to choose policies that use free and open technologies such as free softwares to guarantee the digital inclusion and sovereignty of the countries. To move forward against the current monopoly of the media and this way guarantee the participation of the community media specially those with education programs. You can read their full resolution here(spanish only).

Brazil’s impressive Digital Inclusion program (Inclusão Digital) has received extensive coverage on this website, especially in comparison to technology education in the United States. FISL is an annual opportunity for Brazil to show off its commitment to society and Lula’s initiative to provide a world-class technology education for all students. And why shouldn’t they? Brazil’s efforts to bridge the digital divide has not only achieved countless successes but has set a standard that has spread across the Americas (except, unfortunately, in the United States).

Presenting the free software model as a way to provide viable and sustainable access to new information technologies while encouraging the economic and social development of a region is part of the goals of III ENSL, the Northeast Free Software Meeting and the Fourth Bahia Free Software Festival, happening on May 29-30 at the campus of Bahia State University (UNEB) in Salvador, Bahia’s capital.

The Bahia’s Free Software Project and Colivre - Cooperative of Technology Livre (Free) - are jointly promoting the event. Colivre is part of North By South Developers Network and have done a great job organizing these two important events, at once! They’ve put together great panels which include Jon “Maddog” Hall and Sérgio Amadeu, who created the largest municipal telecentro project in Brazil while he was head of the Department of Communication from São Paulo. Today he is a professor at Casper Líbero University in São Paulo and part of the movement against the Internet Project Law that will restrict internet freedom in Brazil.

Other well-known developers from the free software movement in Brazil were invited as well as lawyers, educators and digital inclusion activists. During the two days of the event, the space will be open for professionals, technicians and users to discuss and reflect on the economic, technological, cultural and educational role of free software in our society. The organization is estimating more than 800 attendees.

The Brazilian National Support Project for Telecentros (public computer labs with free, public Internet access) intends to support the deployment of 2 - 3,000 new Telecentros and towards achieving the goal of 10,000 active Telecentros by the year 2010. Almost all of the Telecentros are built using entirely free and open source software. Adding to the social benefit of the project, the rapid timetable will be met by training Brazilian youths on how to install Linux, configure the workstations and servers, and get the Telecentros online, up and running.

The Project is currently in a period of public comment until May 29th, during which time any citizen will be able to read the project proposal and submit his/her suggestions to it. The first draft of the Project will be presented at a public hearing at SERPRO’s headquarters (Brazil’s IT state company) in Brasília on May 19 (Tuesday). Even more cool, the hearing will be held as a national video-conference with 28 cities in Brazil participating. After the draft is presented, the public will be able to directly interact with the public officials from the Ministries of Communication, Science & Technology and Planning about the project.

Anyone can check out a list of the different Telecentros programs in Brazil, with over 3,000 already deployed throughout the country.

Another upcoming event sponsored by the government is the annual edition of Workshops for Digital Inclusion, a federal government-sponsored training for people who will work at the Telecentro labs. The workshops are also open to anyone from the community interested in learning about technology and free software. Last year, the 7th edition of this event gathered 3,514 people in the city of Belém in Pará, the highest participation to date for that event.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Microsoft continues to bribe politicians into ignoring free software, we have sub-quality public technology education for students, absolutely no technology education available for the community-at-large except what unfunded user groups can provide and what we can boast is a generation of youth who know how to pimp out their MySpace page but probably can’t spell “Unix.”