[heise.de] Microsoft, the "Vienna Conclusions, " and the UN World Summit

[Georg C. F. Greve]

[ english translation of
   http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/66530 -- now online at
   http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/66619 ]

Microsoft, the "Vienna Conclusions," and the UN World Summit

The Vienna Conclusions drawn up for the UN's World Summit on the
Information Society WSIS) were presented in an edited version in
Tunis: Digital Rights Management was inserted where "free software"
used to be. It turned out that these changes were made at the request
of Thomas Lutz, a member of the management board at Microsoft Austria,
and ÖVP representative Carina Felzmann, who also heads a PR and
lobbying firm.  The Chancellor of Austria published the text presented
in Tunis. His office has yet to react to a query in this matter that
heise online placed last Sunday.

Under the title ICT + Creativity, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang
Schüssel (ÖVP) sent out invitations last June to a top-notch
international conference for the WSIS. Microsoft was one of its
sponsors. In various panels on various topics, experts held
discussions, with the results being protocolled in texts mutually
approved. These texts were collectively published as the Vienna
Conclusions. One of the panels was called Digital Rights / Creative
Commons. Nii Narku Quaynor, then-CEO of Network Computer Systems
Limited of Ghana and a former African representative at ICANN, chaired
the panel. Ralf Bendrath, political scientist at the University of
Bremen and a monitor of the WSIS process for the Heinrich Böll
Foundation, reported on the panel. Other participants included Georg
C.F. Greve of the Free Software Foundation of Europe (FSFE), Richard
Owens of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Georg
Pleger of Creative Commons Austria, and Peter Rantasa of Music
Information Center Austria (mica).

Bendrath and Greve were shocked when they saw the brochures
distributed in Tunis (PDF file) (allegedly) containing the Vienna
Conclusions. Instead of the original text from "their" panel, they
read a version that differed in several substantial respects. To begin
with, there was no talk anywhere of the "success of free software." In
addition, the meaning of the section that discussed the revenue shift
from content and digital works to services based on them had also been
changed.

The statement that software should be seen as the cultural technology
of digital society was watered down to "the practical and simple use
of software." Likewise, the following two passages popped up out of
nowhere: "Commercial products bring innovation to the mass of
consumers all over the world"; and "To ensure ongoing innovation,
Digital Rights Management (DRM) development and deployment must remain
voluntary and market-driven."

At first glance, this might sound consumer-friendly, but actually it
is a jab against the EU's attempts to regulate DRM. "DRM has nothing
to do with innovation. The Sony rootkit also shows that there is
nothing voluntary about DRM," argues Greve. "In Tunis, we tried to
talk with the Austrians (about the editing of the text). But they were
too busy celebrating the 'World Summit Award' and its funding with the
sponsors."

When the television show ORF futureZone reported, "media professor"
Dr. Peter Aurelius Bruck, "Editor-in-Chief" of the brochure that the
Austrian Chancellor's Office published, started taking part in the
online forum. While Bruck did not deny that changes were made, he did
accuse the journalists at ORF of "misleading the public." After the
conference he directed, he launched a public blog so that all of the
texts could be discussed further. But Greve and Bendrath claimed that
no one who took part in the panel was informed of this blog. Indeed,
the blog does contain three postings on the content of the DNA
Conclusions, two of which concern the Digital Rights / Creative
Commons panel.

On September 27, three days before the blog was closed as announced,
the entry "Comments from Microsoft Corporation" appeared, signed by
"Thomas Lutz, Manager Public Affairs Mitglied der Geschäftsleitung
Microsoft Österreich GmbH". He proposed that all of the passages that
spoke of the success of free software or the revenue shift from
content and digital works toward services be deleted altogether.
Microsoft felt that they should not be kept because the goal of free
software is to make it impossible for anyone to earn money from
software. "This is so obviously stupid and nonsensical that it seems
pointless to comment on it", Greve comments in his own blog: "Just
another monopolist trying to uphold their monopoly by preventing
freedom of markets ? which is what Free Software really aims at."

The changes that Microsoft proposed were taken out without the members
of the panel even being consulted. Further down, Microsoft
successfully has the sentence concerning "innovation through
commercial products" added to the text.  On October 5, a few days
after Bruck had officially closed his blog, ÖVP parliamentarian Carina
Felzmann published an entry in her capacity as head of the PR and
lobbying firm CoxOrange and as Chairwoman of the Association creativ
wirtschaft austria, which also includes IFPI, the Association of the
Austrian Music Industry. Her post contains the sentence about DRM.

Upon returning from Tunis, Greve reported that, "The panel is now
discussing internally whether we will make a joint statement or take
any other steps." "I feel that this is the best solution because the
Conclusions were a collaborative effort." And while members of the
panel discussed among themselves how to proceed, heise online is still
waiting for the office of the Austrian Chancellor to respond to its
query. (Daniel AJ Sokolov) (Craig Morris) / (jk/c't)