the i-witnesses

Opening the (Bill) Gates to low-cost software

Bill Gates announced at last week’s Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in Beijing that Microsoft will be offering its software to students in developing countries for just a few dollars. Developing country governments will be able to buy the Student Innovation Suite for $3 per student, thereby subsidising the cost of PCs for potentially billions of users.

Microsoft describes its move as promoting “sustained social and economic opportunity”. But this apparently philanthropic act – which undoubtedly has market expansion at its heart – is likely to play a powerful role in shaping debates on open source software and state procurement policy on proprietary software.

Microsoft critics view the announcement as a threat to recognising the potential of open source software. I also fear that this seemingly lucrative offer could slow down the pace of developing nations’ commitment towards open source software, which started as a way to minimise software procurement cost and maximise the localisation of language and content.

> Read Panos London’s briefing on open source software

Microsoft weighs in to the online library debate

Last month I blogged about Google’s plan to ‘liberate’ hardbound books by creating an online global library. Today Microsoft accused the project of systematically violating the copyright of authors.

As part of ongoing rivalries between Microsoft and Google the former launched its own ‘Live Search Books’ service last December, which currently provides access to non-copyrighted texts. Their clients include the British Library, University of California and University of Toronto.

The Authors Guild – a professional association for American writers – opposes Google’s initiative because it digitises books from various libraries without the written consent of individual authors. In contrast, according to Microsoft’s Danielle Tiedt, its service will only digitise copyrighted books when prior consent has been obtained.

But hold on a minute… As an alumnus of the London School of Economics, I’m allowed inside the library to read its books. But I’m not allowed to copy material, and I cannot access Microsoft Office programmes on the computer system. The librarian told me: “The contract with Microsoft is exclusive to students”.

So much for Microsoft’s principles. Of course, we all know that corporations are ruthless when it comes to making profits – whether they are Microsoft or Google. But my question is: what legal right do libraries (which are often publicly funded) have to hand over ‘their’ knowledge to commercial organisations?