Section 14.3. Developing the Software Livre Movement


14.3. Developing the Software Livre Movement

In this market, dominated by preexisting, international companies, the Brazilian-organized software livre movement started in the south of the country. Although there existed some prior activity, the initial work of Mário Teza and Ronaldo Lages joined users and system administrators interested in the GNU/Linux OS and started to organize the community. At that time, a discussion about the use of GNU/Linux was the main objective, but when this initial group was ready to launch its first event, it decided that it should be more than simply a GNU/Linux event and created the first FISLFórum Internacional software livre, the International Free Software Forumeffectively launching the software livre discussion in the country.

The moment was a turbulent one. On one side, the Internet shed a new light on the notion and importance of standards and the real possibility of avoiding lock-in. The desktop dominance of Microsoft was being heavily questionedfirst because of the indisputable reality of security problems with Microsoft products, but also because of the possibility of multiplatform development raised by new technologies and products such as Apache, HTTP, CGI, Java, and HTML. In the middle of this, decisions in the United States on Internet governance and security technologies made clear, not only to Brazil but also to the whole world, how much the IT industry was relying on U.S.-controlled technologies. Microsoft being declared a monopoly and accused of power abuse, raised questions about how much trust Brazil (or any other country) should put in a single company, especially for such a strategic market.

Microsoft launched an astonishing campaign against software copying, or "piracy," that backfired by giving a clear demonstration of how important choice is. After many years of promoting the copying and usage of its software inside universities and companies, by sponsoring local "software protection" organizations, Microsoft initiated a fear campaign that included strong TV commercials comparing software copying with drug dealing and other major crimes. The company also encouraged police raids on large companies. The campaign was legal and was supported by Brazilian antipiracy legislation, but it was an obvious intimidation move. The message was clear: stop doing what we told you was OK when you were in the university. Revenue from licensing increased overnight, but the initiative backfired in an unexpected way. Many of the initial migrations to open source solutions were done for fear of investigation. Companies and, especially, universities, lacking the budget to suddenly buy hundreds or thousands of very expensive licenses (remember the currency exchange rates), and risking fines up to 3,000 times the license cost for each unlicensed copy, switched to GNU/Linux and OpenOffice in a matter of days.

These initial migrations were instantly successful. Part of the success stems from the Internet's inherent cross-platform nature. Furthermore, people were acutely aware of ongoing security problems with Microsoft products. Add the dependency that most companies and developers, and even the government, had on systems from these large corporations and the U.S. v. Microsoft lawsuit. All this came into play around the same time. The stage was set for the discussion of how dependency on proprietary software was affecting the Brazilian economy and, especially, its sovereignty.

At about the same time, state governments were using free software products to offer Internet access to the population. A project called Telecentros, led by Sergio Amadeu, the software activist recently sued by Microsoft and one of today's top software livre advocates in the country, proved that GNU/Linux, OpenOffice, Mozilla, and a full set of open source products could be easily mastered by the population, even by people who had no previous contact with computers. The reliability and security of these systems, the possibility of running on cheaper donated machines, full support for all users, and essential ease of use made the program a huge success. Three years later, the balance showed that what was spent implementing software livre in the Telecentros would have paid for only half as many systems if Microsoft products had been used. Although the cost savings were significant, the fact that users, the government, companies, and the country could now see a real choice instead of being locked in was the main achievement of the initiative.

Freedom is something that every politician understands, so many bought the idea early on. Walter Pinheiro and Simão Pedro were pioneers on the wave that swept almost all political parties and a large number of politicians. Software livre reached the legislation houses, first at state level and then at the federal level. Now the discussion has reached the courts, where the laws and decisions taken in favor of software livre are being questioned by those who oppose it; even open source licenses are being questioned.

In just a few years, this important discussion has basically surpassed the IT industry, reaching all levels of society.

We have gone from the simple use of FOSS operating systems to freedom in general, to patents and intellectual property, Internet governance, international standards, and relationships. By going further than the simple four liberties of free software, the discussion reached the music and cultural sectors, promoting the sharing of knowledgeall knowledgeand today, even the Minister of Culture, the famous singer Gilberto Gil supports the software livre movement. Not just for free software, but for freedom of choiceand of knowledge sharing.



Open Sources 2.0
Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution
ISBN: 0596008023
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 217

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