A South African Minister doing the right thing about technology?
April 9th, 2008 | by kilps |South African governmental ministers are not generally known for their wise decisions regarding technology, but maybe that just comes from the Department of Communications.
The Minister of Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleket, made excellent comments recently regarding software patents and Microsoft’s ‘open’ office standard.
The particular remarks were made to a free software conference a month or so ago - basically she said two things:
“[It is] unfortunate that the leading vendor of proprietary office software, which enjoys considerable dominance in the market, chose not to participate and support ODF in its products but rather to develop its own competing document standard, which is now also awaiting judgement in the ISO process. If it is successful it is difficult to see how consumers will benefit from these two overlapping ISO standards. I would, however, like to appeal to vendors to listen to the demands of consumers as well as the free software movement. Please work together to produce interoperable document standards. The proliferation of multiple standards in this space is confusing and costly,”
I haven’t really kept up with all the debates about Microsoft’s alternative format; but I am aware that a lot of people are unhappy with it - particularly in the Open Source community - and so I must assume that they are right about this one. So +1 to the minister for choosing the right side of this issue.
Fraser-Moleketi then said that software patents were and “issue which pose a considerable threat the growth of the African software sector” and how there had been “recent pressure by certain multinational corporations to file software patents in our national and regional patent offices. Whereas free software and open standards are intended to be open and encourage competition, patents are exclusive and anti-competitive by their nature.”
“Whereas there are some industries where the temporary monopoly granted by a patent may be justified … there’s no reason to believe that society benefits from such monopolies being granted for computer programs [and inventions],” she said.
This one is a bit easier to understand; it is very clear that larger companies are abusing their positions by threatening smaller competitors, and open source providers, with legal action. Fortunately South African does not allow software patents - but it is an ongoing issue around the world.
But this post isn’t really about why software patents are bad and why the Open Document Standard is good enough, that’s too complex - rather what I’ve found most interesting is how the Norwegians have reacted.
After having a bit of troubles around the approval process for the standard over there, protesters pick up on the Minister’s remarks and liked them. So something positive today: minister does the right thing and South Africa gets recognition for it. Now when last did that happen? 
