It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software.
What's Special 301? It's a report that examines the "adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights" around the planet - effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure - often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods - to try and force governments to change their behaviours.
US copyright lobby considers open source as equivalent to piracy
Posted on Friday, February 26 2010 @ 1:15 CET by Thomas De MaesschalckGuardian discovered the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a copyright lobby group, is trying to get the US government to consider open-source software as the equivalent of piracy. The newspaper reports the organization is trying to get countries like Brazil, India and Indonesia on the "Special 301 watchlist" because they encourage the use of open-source software.
