Creative Commons Brazil

This is a video about the Creative Commons movement in Brazil. Creative Commons is about a new interpretation of copyright, about “some rights reserved” rather than “all rights reserved”. This way, creativity and development should be stimulated. Interesting detail is that Bill Gates renamed the movement ‘Creative Commies’, referring to the communists and inherently saying that sharing is a dead ideology. In Brazil they apparently don’t agree to this point of view. Minister of Culture and pop star Gilberto Gil of the current government is backing the initiative and donated some of his songs for free use and sampling, and Brazil adopted the open software model for all governmental institutions, as I already mentioned here.

I already gave to attention to the subject here.The content of this blog is also free to reuse under some restrictions, which are explained when clicking on the Creative Commons logo to the right.

The video is about the Creative Commons movement in Brazil and provides a quick introduction into the activities of the organisation.

For more information check the Creative Commons wiki, or the official Creative Commons website.

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Aids, Linux and Intellectual Property in Brazil

Involving the patents for Aids medicine and the initiative for the use of Free and Open Source Software in Brazil confronted the world with a new approach on intellectual property. It was for the first time a country came so close to the violation of a patent. Even though it is not a matter of a third world country with an underdeveloped system of justice that can allow itself the freedom to ignore international laws on IP because it has nothing to lose anyway. The principle of ignoring international laws on IP is not new. Already in the 19th century the United States ignored the copyright of foreign authors to give the young nation the freedom to develop itself. [1]

IP was defined initially to allow inventors to share the details of their inventions under protection of the law, that guaranteed a certain monopoly for the commercial exploitation of her or his invention. This way innovation and development, and as a consequence economic growth, would be stimulated. But as the years passed the aspect of development got less important, and issues of property and exploitation have gained importance, which made the issue predominantly a juridical one. This can lead to surreal situations, as was proved in 2001 when the Japanese Asahi Foods Company patented Cupuacu, [2] a Cacao-like plant from the Amazon. This way the absurd issue raised that the Brazilian and Peruvian locales, that had been cultivating the plant for generations, could be accused for the violation of IP. A comparable case of ‘bio piracy’ was reported in the case of Basmati rice in India.

[Minister Gilberto Gil at Berkeley University]

As the aspect of development lost priority in the discussion about IP, the possibility to react efficiently to emergencies, like the Aids epidemic and poverty, got more difficult. This is why the leaders of the country decided to change their view on IP. As pop artist, minister of culture and protagonist of FOSS Gilberto Gil said: “… The Brazilian government is definitely pro law, but when the law does not apply to reality, the law has to be changed. That’s not new. It is civilization as usual …” [3]

The Brazilian attitude on IP is fundamentally not a matter of blackmail or cost efficiency, but a choice for a new model of development. As Sérgio Amadeu da Silveira said: “… We are not talking about one product against the other – like Ford against Fiat. We are talking about different models of development …”. [4] It is the difference between a model based on economic development and a model based on development in general. It is a model of the collaborative design and shared responsibilities.

[1] Patently Problematic – The Economist – September 12, 2002
[2] http://www.amazonlink.org/biopiracy/cupuacu.htm
[3] Minister of Counterculture – Oliver Burkeman – The Guardian – October 14, 2005
[4] We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin – Julian Dibbell – Wired Magazine – November 2004

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Brazil: Linux by Policy

“… Every licence for Windows and Office in Brazil – a country where 22 million people starve – means we have to export 60 bags of soy beans. For the rights of use of one and a half year, until the next upgrade, for one copy of Windows and Office, we have to cultivate, sow, reap and export that much soy. When I tell this to the farmers, they go nuts …” – Marcelo Délia Branco, coordinator of the Free Software Project. [1]

This argument made the Lula da Silva administration decide in 2005 to concentrate policy involving digital development around one key aspect: Free and Open Source Software. Linux is an example of FOSS and is a computer operating system, just like Windows. The difference is that the source code is available to everyone, and can be improved by everyone. The result is a program that is more stable then corporate Windows and with less bugs, which is the main reason why it is used at servers of big corporations like Google. The principle of FOSS was defined in 1989 by Richard Stallman in the General Public Licence as a part of the GNU project. So FOSS is in fact everyone’s property, and there are no licences involved.

These principles made the Brazilian government decide in 2005 to switch to FOSS for all governmental institutions, for which a letter of intent was signed with IBM. Also a demand was put to all institutions or corporations that are subsidised by the federation to develop their software as FOSS. Brazil is fertile ground for FOSS. The grassroots movement that promotes the use of FOSS is strong and there are a number of companies that already make a thorough use of it. Petrobrás, Brazil’s biggest company, and also Banco Real (ABN AMRO) and HSBC [2] are some examples. There are even cash dispensers that are operated with FOSS.

Microsoft is rightly worried about Brazil’s policy on information technology. Bill Gates has tried on several occasions to speak about the matter to president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, like at the World Economic Forum in January 2005 in Davos, Switzerland. Also, Microsoft reacted by offering a cheaper, more simple version of Windows XP, but after the government rejected saying the program was not suitable for their purposes Microsoft started to issue the program for free to local authorities and computer projects for the poor. The relationship with Microsoft plummeted when the coordinator for the use of Linux within the government, Sérgio Amadeu da Silveira (a sociologist, like Cardoso), of the National Institution of Information Technologies marked the strategy of Microsoft as “… drug dealer practices, a Trojan horse, the insurance of critical mass to keep the country strangled …“. [1] Initially Microsoft protested against the accusations, but under public pressure the protest was retrieved.

[1] We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin – Julian Dibbell – Wired Magazine – November 2004
[2] The Penguin Advances – Marineide Marques

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Brazil: HIV versus medicine patents

To the combined oil and sugar crises Brazil reacted with a characteristic pragmatism and with a strong focus on social aspects. In a land with severe cultural and economical contrasts, every
problem is a social problem by definition. The role of then minister of finance Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), former professor sociology, is and example in this perspective. He was able to win control over hyperinflation with the introduction of a new valuta, the Real. [1]

In 1990 the same Cardoso, now Brazil’s president, was forced to take action against the further spreading of the Aids virus. In those times the percentage of HIV infected was a about 1% of the population, comparable to that of South Africa at that moment. Though Brazil is the world’s biggest Roman Catholic country, the campaign was characteristic not for its moralism but for its pragmatism. The taboos about sexual relationships were confronted in a preventive campaign aimed at prostitutes, drug users, truck drivers, prisoners and street children but also married women, an important group as they consider themselves safe for the virus within their marriage. The government started to spread 10 million condoms during Carnival 2005 in cooperation with nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and minister of health Saraiva Felipe announced the construction of a federal condom factory. [2]

Next to prevention another focus point in the campaign was medication, which started with the free distribution of an anti Aids cocktail of 12 medicines. In 2001 the cocktail was issued to about 100.000 people, which took about 28% of the available buget (USD 88,5 M). The limited budget, a growing amount of infected people combined with the fact that some medicines in the cocktail were disproportional high, made an efficiency check necessary. For those medicines for which the patents were expired, Brazilian laboratories were contacted in order to develop cheaper versions of the medicines. For the patented medicines, then minister of health José Serra took the initiative in 2001 to contact a number of pharmaceutical industrials to urge them to give a discount on the delivered medicines. In exchange stability in the market was offered for a period of six years. This way the producers would have a guaranteed market and the patent would be respected. [3]

The proposal was met with great indignation. The United States took the initiative at the World Trade Organisation to protest the act of disrespect for intellectual property. Under public pressure, the Americans were silenced in June 2001, the day the UN Aids convention opened in New York. Ultimately the American producers Abott (producer of Kaletra) and Merck, Sharp & Dohme (Efavirenz) issued substantial discounts on the medicines, the latter even up to 64%. Also an agreement was made with Abbott for a technology transfer for the produce of medicine, once the patent would expire in 2015. [4]

[Aids has barriers - protect yourself - use a condom]

Apart from these agreements the Brazilian government considered it important that also the Swiss producer Roche would issue a substantial discount, as their medicine Viracept (or Nelfinavir) was responsible for about 25% of the costs of the cocktail. Roche refused, even when Serra reminded them that Brazilian law permits the violation of intellectual property when an emergency is involved. When preparations were made to allow a Brazilian laboratory to start the production of the medicine and de facto actually breaking the patent on Nelvinavir, the Swiss resigned and reduced the price with 40%. Finally the WTO agreed with India and Brazil for a more flexible interpretation of IP law with the TRIPS protocol (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). It was acknowledged that public health and national emergency have priority over the protection of free enterprise.

As a result of the campaign Brazil counted 597.000 HIV infected patients in 2001, when the
campaign was five years in progress, half of what was predicted by the UN 10 years before. Also the amount of Aids victims were halved, an the number of hospitalized patients was diminished by 80%, with help of improved medication. Today the percentage of infected is 0,3%, contrary to a dramatic 20% in South Africa, where the situation was comparable to Brazil’s in 1990. [5]

[1] The Accidental President of Brazil – Fernando Henrique Cardoso – Public Affairs Books – 2006
[2] Brazil plans massive condom drive – BBC News – December 1, 2005
[3] Swiss giant bows to Brazil over pricing of anti-Aids drug – Alex Bellos – Guardian Weekly – September 6,
2001
[4] Defiant Brazil gives go-ahead for copies of anti-Aids drug – Alex Bellos – The Guardian – August 24, 2001
[5] The Accidental President of Brazil – Fernando Henrique Cardoso – Public Affairs Books – 2006

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