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-------- Orijinal Mesaj --------
Konu: 	[FOSS-PDI] Open Source, Standards Get A Boost In China
Tarih: 	Sun, 29 Apr 2007 16:04:00 +0530
Kimden: 	Sunil Abraham <sunil at apdip.net>
Cevapla: 	sunil at apdip.net, FOSS - Policy and Development Implications 
<foss-pdi at iosn.net>
Organizasyon: 	International Open Source Network
Kime: 	FOSS - Policy and Development Implications <foss-pdi at iosn.net>



Open Source, Standards Get A Boost In China
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=597&res=1024_ff&print=0

By William New
BEIJING - Open-source software is receiving a rapid uptake in key
developing countries and users, local industries and governments say it
offers them market opening, flexibility and lower costs. China, perhaps
the biggest potential market, showed last week how much open source is
part of its plans. 

The adoption of open-source software is also related to rising interest
in open standards, which stems from emerging economies? effort to make
global standards-making more favourable to them. Governments and
technology companies say that a change in standards which involve
underlying patents can mean monopoly markets for patent-holding
companies, most of which are usually based in developed countries. 

A key issue is whether companies should be required to disclose early in
the process of setting standards any related patents they have. China
and others say sometimes the standard is established and then afterward
it becomes clear that a company or companies own hidden patents and can
gain by charging high prices for licenses. 

The issue was discussed at a 17-18 April event in Beijing, originally
billed as part of a series called ?The Standards Edge,?
www.thebolingroup.com, cosponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce
and several other agencies, as well as US technology company Sun
Microsystems. 

The Chinese government appeared to take control of the event. The name
of the conference was said by organisers to change overnight to ?WTO:
IPRs Issues in Standardization,? similar to the title of a 2005 paper
China submitted at the WTO to push for changes to the WTO Agreement on
Technical Barriers to Trade. 

There were very few question and answer opportunities during the event.
Several senior Chinese government officials were unwilling to discuss
policy with a foreign journalist, and a ?press briefing? with Sun
Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy and Chinese officials was limited to
local Chinese media, most of whom are considered to be affiliated with
the government, sources said. 

Speaking at the event, Hu Caiyong, CEO of Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000
Software Technology, an open-source software company, said international
standards have not been fair to China and should be ignored, at least
for now. ?There?s no level playground,? he said. Countries present in
international organisations like the World Trade Organization are there
?to profit their own interests.? 

?To establish an intellectual property protection system conforming to
Chinese characteristics, protecting independent innovation: Avoid
resorting to international usual practice blindly,? one of his slides
read. He said Microsoft uses a less-precise western-based system. 

Hu?s company?s Linux-based open source software, RedOffice, has been
adopted by more than 200 local governments in China. ?We are now in a
position to compete with Microsoft,? he said, adding that his company
has received regular legal threats from foreign technology and
telecommunications firms. But he said he has support from the Chinese
government as open-source software is essential for China?s development
of competing and independent tools. 

?Open source software is the gift to the whole of humankind from the
open source community, and will be an opportunity for developing Chinese
domestic software,? he said. 

Joining of Open Document Format and Chinese Format?

Several speakers, including Hu, noted China?s development of its own
open document format, referred to as UOF (Uniform Office Format), which
could compete with Open Document Format, which has been recognised as a
standard by the International Standardization Organization, and a
competing format from Microsoft. Overtures were made by proponents of
the ODF standard, including Sun Microsystems, to combine UOF with ODF.
The UOF format was developed based on ODF, one source said. 

ODF is a standard of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS), a global consortium on ?e-business and
web service? standards, as well as the ISO. 

Goh Seow Hiong, director for software policy for Asia at the US-based
Business Software Alliance, urged the audience to consider the risks of
open-source software and open document standards and to support patents,
attempting to cast doubt on arguments made before him. For instance, he
said if it were decided to grant royalty-free standards, meaning
patent-holders do not get paid for licensing of their patent that falls
under a standard, ?you would have kind of a little bit of a problem,? he
said. 

Goh also downplayed the usefulness of interoperability, and argued
against the notion that a high degree of usage of a technology can lock
in a standard, hindering technological evolution. BSA?s membership
includes companies favouring proprietary models, such as Microsoft. At
least one representative from Microsoft, Wen Lanling from the Beijing
office, was in attendance, but no company representatives made public
comments at the event.

In a reflection of the battle for China?s market, Microsoft also made a
splash in Beijing during the week with events such as its Government
Leaders Forum Asia, which creates a limited-access opportunity for ?a
thoughtful dialogue about policy, technology issues, etc.,? a company
spokesperson said. Officials from Oracle also were on hand at the
standards conference, and separately, Intel held its Developer Forum in
Beijing during the week (http://www.intel.com/idf). 

On the first day of the Microsoft leaders forum, a joint innovation
centre between Microsoft and Chinese computer maker Lenovo in Beijing
was announced, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was in China from
Thursday to Saturday. Gates also addressed students at Tsinghua
University where he will receive an honorary doctorate, and was to
participate in China?s Imagination Festival, which has an educational
focus, according to another spokesperson. During one public appearance,
a person ran in front of the stage with a sign hailing open source
software, according to a photograph in China Daily. The partnership
between Microsoft and Lenovo has grown over the past year or so, giving
Microsoft a boost to entry into the Chinese market, according to
reports. But Lenovo also has contracted with Sun Microsystems to ?run?
the logistics systems for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, according to a
Sun official. 

Patent Pools and Standards

At back-to-back conferences, Zhan Ping, a Beijing University Law School
professor, explained her dogged efforts to bring about improvements to
patent pools, which she said are an arrangement in which two or more
patent holders give licenses to each other or a third party and
typically grant patents cooperatively. License fees are distributed to
members based on their arrangement. She said patent pools help address
increased decentralisation of patent rights which interferes with
technology development, but problems can arise, for instance in the
setting of license fees or anti-competitive activities. Undesired
results can be inflated licensing prices and harm to the public domain,
she said. Zhang described a lengthy case she and others brought against
Philips electronics company that led to the invalidation of one its
patents in China. She said the case could have an impact on other patent
pools involving popular global technologies, in part by subjecting them
to closer analysis under antitrust laws. 

The Chinese government is stepping up its intensive focus on
international policymaking bodies, officials said. At the standards
conference, an official from China?s information technology agency gave
numerous statistics, such as that the agency increased its submissions
to the International Telecommunication Union by 54 percent last year to
655, and that China now has 1.5 million patents, 30 percent of which are
related to information and communications technology. 

International standards bodies were on the defensive as speakers from
China suggested that the bodies, usually located in western countries,
over-represent western developed countries. Representatives speaking in
defence of western-based organisations came from the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute, the BSI Group (an independent
United Kingdom standards body), and the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC), who also spoke on behalf of the International
Standards Organization and the International Telecommunication Union.

The latter, IEC Standardisation Strategy Manager Jack Sheldon, described
the new patent rights policy jointly issued by the three organisations
in recent weeks, which raises the stakes on patent disclosure. He said
if the policy forces the technical body to reconsider standards if
previously undisclosed patents come to light later. 

Sun Microsystems? McNealy and other speakers said some standards are in
the public interest and should not involve patents, such as language. He
highlighted Sun?s open-source business model and took a shot at
competitor Microsoft, saying Windows is a standard but is not open.
?There?s almost no reason anymore to go proprietary,? he said, asserting
that it hurts technology ?migration paths? as ?the barriers to exit
[from use of proprietary technologies] are stunning.? He called on
governments and standards bodies to address the problem. 

David Vivas Eugui, programme manager for intellectual property at the
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development in Geneva,
discussed how development and the progression of IP is related. But he
said developing countries are being pushed from the initial imitation
stage to implementation to innovation more quickly than the developed
countries went through in their IP system evolution some 100 years ago.
He noted that new actors are influencing the policy process, and said
the debate over patents and standards is ?just the beginning ? part of
the reform and rebalancing of the IP system? that will inexorably take
place.

William New may be reached at info at ip-watch.ch. 



-- 
Sunil Abraham   Manager sunil at apdip.net  www.iosn.net  
International Open Source Network - Software Freedom for All
Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme www.apdip.net
Thailand:UNDP Regional Centre, United Nations Service Building
         3rd Floor, Rajdamnern Nok Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand
         Tel:  (66-2) 288-1234 Fax: (66-2) 288-3032 
India   :3rd Floor, 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071
         Karnataka, India. Mob: (91) 9342201521
         Tel: (91-80) 51150580 Fax: (91-80) 51150583.  

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