Tell the truth and M$ files in court for an "explanation". I suppose that's their new, enlightened approach to open source! -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft sues Brazilian magazine, IT official for defamation Sunday June 20, 2004 (02:00 PM GMT) By: Fergus Cassidy http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/04/06/20/1420245.shtml?tid=137&tid=147 Microsoft Brazil has initiated legal proceedings against a magazine and a senior government official, claiming the company has been defamed. In a 7 June filing to the Criminal Court of Sao Paulo, Microsoft said that "Sergio Amadeu, President of the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI), aiming at disseminating free software among Ministries, State owned companies and governmental bodies, made aggressive declarations lacking any kind of technical foundation about the use of the software developed by Microsoft." The filing continues: "In defending free software, Mr. Amadeu does not abstain from criticizing Microsoft, accusing the company of a 'drug-dealer practice' for offering the operational system Windows to some governments and city administration for digital inclusion programs. "To Amadeu, this will be a decisive year to win the 'strategy of fear, uncertainty and doubt,' as he classifies the business model of Microsoft. "These declarations made by Mr. President of the ITI, beyond being absurd and criminal, extrapolate prohibitions and violate duties inherent to the public office the Defendant exercises." Asserting that Amadeu's remarks are infringing speech under Article 25 of the Press Law, Microsoft has demanded that Amadeu answer a list of questions, mostly centred on the use of the phrase "drug dealer practice." Microsoft wants to know whether Amadeu spoke "about free software to the Carta Capital magazine in an article published on 17 March 2004." And "has the defendant referred to the attitude of the Plaintiff Microsoft as 'drug dealer practice'." Microsoft also asks: "What does the expression proferred by the Defendant 'strategy of fear, uncertainty and doubt' referred in the article mean?" Open source in Brazil As President of the National Institute of Information Technology, Sergio Amadeu has been one of the Brazil's foremost proponents of open source software. The government is committed to open source as a political strategy. "We are not opting for a product, we are opting for a software-use development model. This is a political decision, and I cannot emphasize this enough, based on an economic reason -- a reduction in the remittance of royalties. It also expands Brazil's technological autonomy and strengthens our collective intelligence," Amadeu remarked recently. This adoption of open source means that Brazil is the biggest public sector user of Linux in South America. Government targets are committed to exporting around $2 billion worth in software every year; to replacing Windows with Linux in 300,000 federal computers; to transferring $1 billion from the Telecommunications Fund to the free software-based Digital Communications System and to network the country's 200,000 public schools using open source. Six government ministries are in the process of switching over to open source, and by the end of next year it is planned that 40 percent of ministries will be using open source. Cost savings are estimated at $5.8 million over five years. Last week, IBM announced it was targeting the Brazilian enterprise IT market with new offerings based on Linux. In its most recent quarterly report, IBM identified Brazil as its hottest growth market in the Americas. Brazil's drive for open source has led to an on-going war of words between Microsoft and the government, which will now spill out again into the courts. Last month Microsoft was found not guilty by Brazil's antitrust regulator of stifling software competition following a six-year investigation. The case resulted from claims by Brazilian software house, Paiva Piovesan, that Microsoft had harmed the competitiveness of one of its financial programs. Microsoft critical of government policy Microsoft has not held back on its criticism. The company's president in Brazil, Emilio Umeoka has attacked the government's ideology. He told Reuters recently: "If the country closes itself off again -- as it did when it protected its information technology, 10 years from now we will wake up and be dominant in something insignificant." He also said the policy of the country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was leading the country in the wrong direction: "The sectors, ministries, and governments with which we have had dialogue we have managed to work well with. Where we have encountered an approach much more ideological, not based on the technical area, we fail to discuss effectively. I don't know if this is the best way to attract investment into the country. I know this is not the best way to create a base of development from which to export, because there's no revenue from something free." In response to the defamation filing by Microsoft, Sergio Amadeu -- the president of the National Institute of Technology cited by the company in its defamation allegations -- released a press statement last Thursday. He said the "judicial provocation imposed against me is, by its own, so unusual and improper that it does not deserve any answer. On the other hand, I'd like to register that the purchase of software that preserves the values of openness and freedom is, for the Brazilian government, a subject unavoidably connected to the democratic principle." He ended his statement with "The future is free." A support campaign has been launched by Softwarelivre Brazil. Fergus Cassidy is a technology writer with the Sunday Tribune. -- Sign the petition against Senator Lacson: http://www.petitiononline.com/no2ping/petition.html --[Manny [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member: Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications "Affordable Access for All" --[Open Minds Philippines]--------------------[openminds.linux.org.ph]-- -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
