[Lac] 3 buenas noticias: ATT / WIPO / multimedia

[Diego Saravia]

3 excelentes buenas nuevas

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ATT Tests Linux to Replace Microsoft's Windows on 70,000 PCs

Bloomberg reports that AT&T is considering deploying Linux on tens of
thousands of desktops - or is, perhaps, just trying to get a lower price out
of Microsoft. "A surge in virus attacks on Windows spurred AT&T to consider
using Linux, [AT&T CIO Hossein] Eslambolchi said. AT&T could also save 50
percent to 60 percent on the cost of desktop software by using Linux, he said."

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Monday, October 4, 2004
Massive victory at WIPO!
For years now, progressive elements and copyfighters have been trying to get
the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization to start thinking about ways
of promoting creativity and development instead of just IP -- to get the
organization to see that its raison d'etre is a better world, and that
stronger IP laws is just one way of accomplishing that -- and that IP only
works sometimes.

We've been foiled at every turn by the maximalists, the movies studios and the
trademark offices, the patent-cops and the recording industry lobbyists and
the IP lawyers' associations.

Which is why this is such good news: at the general session of the WIPO in
Geneva this weekend, the Assembly as adoped a decision to put development and
the promotion of creativity front-and-center in its goals. That means that
from now on, WIPO isn't an organization that blindly supports more IP no
matter what, but rather one that seeeks to improve the world by whatever tool
is best suited to the job.

Jamie Love and the Consumer Project on Technology gets the credit for this:
they were the ones who started this fight, and they've been the ones who led
it all along.

This is the day the tide turns.

    Bearing in mind the internationally agreed development goals, including
those in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Programme of Action
for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, the Monterey
Consensus, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, the
Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action of the first phase of the
World Summit on the Information Society and the Sao Paulo Consensus adopted at
UNCTAD XI;

    (1) The General Assembly welcomes the initiative for a development agenda
and notes the proposals contained in document WO/GA/31/11.

    (2) The General Assembly decides to convene inter-sessional
intergovernmental meetings to examine the proposals contained in document
WO/GA/31/11, as well as additional proposals of Members States. To the extent
possible, the meetings will be convened in conjunction with the 2005 session
of the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to
Intellectual Property. The meetings, open to all Member States, will prepare a
report by July 30, 2005, for the consideration of the next General Assembly.
WIPO-accredited IGOs and NGOs are invited to participate as observers in the
meetings.

    (3) The International Bureau shall undertake immediate arrangements in
order to organize with other relevant multilateral organizations including
UNCTAD, WHO, UNIDO and WTO, a joint international seminar on Intellectual
Property and Development, open to the participation of all stakeholders,
including NGOs, civil society and academia. 

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Today the biggest Linux multimedia projects, like xine and MPlayer, are about
to release full 1.0 versions, which means stable and powerful support. One of
the net's biggest multimedia companies, Real Networks, has a brand new release
of the ever-popular RealPlayer. Sound drivers via Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture (ALSA) are well into 1.0 status, giving us fully functional
surround sound and a stable API. As for visuals, The two biggest video card
manufacturers, ATI and nVidia, officially support Linux."

-- 
Diego Saravia 
dsa at unsa.edu.ar