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[News] Strong Opposition to Intellectual Monopolies in Africa

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Patented Vs open source in SA

,----[ Quote ]
| In March 2008, the Third Idlelo Conference on Free and Open Source Software 
| and Digital Commons was held in Dakar, Senegal by the Free Software and Open 
| Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA). South Africa's then Minister for 
| Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, stated: “The 
| adoption of open standards by governments is a critical factor in building 
| interoperable information systems which are open, accessible, and fair and 
| which reinforce democratic culture and good governance practices”. The 
| minister further said patents are “exclusive and anticompetitive in their 
| nature” and there is no reason to believe society benefits from monopolies 
| granted on computer program inventions.         
| 
| It seems clear there is some disunity within government and its agencies, 
| when the Innovation Fund through its funding instruments is urging the filing 
| of patent applications in the ICT sector to enhance economic growth and 
| competitiveness, while on the other hand a government minister suggests that 
| patenting of computer program inventions is undesirable.    
`----

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/industryinsight/software/devilliers090331.asp?S=Software&A=SFT&O=google

"I feel we are much too smug in dealing with Novell. Perhaps they didn’t hurt
us in DOS yet — but it’s not because of product or their trying. It’s because
we already had the OEMs wrapped up."

                                        --Jim Allchin, Microsoft


Related:

SA minister slams software patents

,----[ Quote ]
| In a taped address for the Idlelo 3 conference, Fraser-Moleketi said 
| that “open standards are a critical factor in building interoperable systems 
| that are important to governments … In South African we have a document - the 
| minimum interoperability standards - which includes the use of open document 
| format or ODF.”    
| 
| Fraser-Moleketi pointed out that ODF was adopted as an ISO standard in 2006. 
| She said that it was “unfortunate that the leading vendor of proprietary 
| office software, which enjoys considerable dominance in the market, chose not 
| to participate and support ODF in its products but rather to develop its own 
| competing document standard, which is now also awaiting judgement in the ISO 
| process.     
`----

http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2304
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