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Base Line

A Few of the Major Areas of Disagreement at the WSIS (Part 1 of 2)

Date

January 9 2004


The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, is behind a proposal to create a 'digital solidarity fund' for the poorest countries funded through international taxation.


The USA, EU, Canada and Japan are against the idea, suggesting Africa would be better served by establishing an environment to enable the private sector to develop infrastructure.



  • Open Source versus Microsoft


    Governments can save billions by switching to free and open source software like Linux. India, Peru, Brazil and South Africa are among nations who have already started switching to viable alternatives to Microsoft.


    Microsoft has been donating billions of dollars worth of software and aid to developing countries where open source is most popular and the WSIS draft declaration of principles has moved from outright 'support' of open source software for the developing world to 'promoting awareness' about 'different software models'.



  • Intellectual property


    Since Napster, free file-sharing has accelerated with software development as have legal battles between copyright holders and computer users in Europe and America. But the battle is also with developing nations like China where piracy is both 'rampant' and a significant gain for the economy.


    New international copyright legislation could impact on developing nations' access to everything from literature and science to basic statistical data and social and political analysis with the extension of copyright periods and the closure of old loopholes like 'fair use'.

    • See also WSIS Declaration of Principles; and Civil Society Declaration to the World Summit on the Information Society.


    Click here to view A Few of the Major Areas of Disagreement at the WSIS, Part 2.


    Source

    The WSIS: whose freedom, whose information? by Solana Larsen, Open Democracy

    Material for Base Line has been compiled from original sources. Click on the external source names for further details. External links are checked when the item is posted to the archives but cannot be guaranteed over time. Appearance on this site does not imply endorsement by partners to The Communication Initiative.

    Please send ideas for Base Line to Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com


    Placed on the Communication Initiative site January 08 2004
    Last Updated January 15 2004

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