The UN bows to Microsoft 2005 November 26
I just read an article (thanks to /.) about the UN bowing to Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft asked the UN to remove references to Free Software and to Linux from a document, known as the Vienna Conclusions, presented at last week’s UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference. You may remember that his is the same conference in which the UN was originally trying to take control of the Internet from ICANN. Luckily, I’ve heard that has been shelved, at least for now. To be fair to Microsoft, they claim this was discussed in the committee that drafted the document. That said, the Free Software Foundation Europe president, Georg Greve, who was involved in drafting the document says it wasn’t discussed. It is kind of a he said, she said thing. However, I can give you one guess on who I would believe first. Besides, even if it was discussed, do you really think the FSEE president would agree to these changes? Anyway, this is just one more reason we need the UN and other such organizations out of running the Internet. How are they going to help get the Internet to poor countries in areas of Africa and Asia if they bow to the likes of Microsoft and ignore Free Software that can be used at a much lower cost (not to mention is more secure, reliable, etc.). Even worse then ignoring Free Software is that in this case they actively shunned it.
Georg is a cool guy. He gives a presenation every year at the FSF (the U.S. organization) Associate Membership Meeting. I took some notes of his ~15 minute presentation and he said he had been working with, “friends of [the] Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)” to get on exclusive councils and boards like the World Intellectual Property Organisatino (WIPO). I assume his appointment to this UN coucil is in the same vein.
It’s worth noting he was appointed as an “official observer” to the WIPO. I suspect he had much the same status on this UN council, and he may not be in a postion to offically debate these revisions. But I still believe him if he says the changes weren’t discussed, and I, of course, think these changes are bad.