Present and future threats to software freedom

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

University of Manchester

The freedom of the software we use constantly faces challenges that one must recognise in order to address them. In this presentation, several of them are highlighted and few examples are given.

Today we are taking technical considerations mostly off the table

Instead...

Realisation that technical merits alone do not guarantee a win

Themes of challenges (with intersections between them):

1. Legal framework

2. Software philosophy

3. Competition

Overview

Legal framework

• government legislation
• software patents
• procurement
• standards

Overview - ctd.

Software philosophy

• business paradigms (e.g. acquisition versus support/maintenance)
• artificial scarcity versus abundance
• misconceptions about transparency
• exclusions (for ethical/political reasons)

Overview - ctd.

Competition

• advertising
• bundling
• legacy systems/lock-in
• conflicts of interests

Government legislation

• budget distribution/allocation (more on that later)
• cryptology export
• DMCA versus decryption
• ACTA
• lobbying

Transnational treaties

DMCA - stifles reverse-engineering, access to media, backup, sharing, hacking

ACTA - copyright, patents, and potentially Internet users tracking (grouped together with fight on fake medicine)

Software patents

• Software patents only valid in few countries, but loopholes exist (ambiguity "as such")
• In Europe, formal legalisation sought through different reform names (unification/harmonisation/UPLS/Community Patent)

Pyramid schemes

• Patent hoarders (e.g. Intellectual Ventures)
• Cross-licensing (vendors), pools (e.g. RPX)

Software patents - ctd.

Patent deals

• Secret, exclusionary deals
• No disclosures about actual patents (the SCO method)
• Financial gain to patent holders no matter the choice of products bought (monopoly versus execution)

Examples of patent cases against Linux

• Apple versus Android/HTC
• Apple patent threat to Palm (now HP)
• Apple-Nokia case may involve Maemo/MeeGo
• Acacia versus Red Hat, Novell
• Microsoft versus Linux distributors (e.g. TomTom)
• OIN defends "good" software patents, stifles abolishers of software patenting

Role of Novell

• Genesis of patent allegations against Linux - May-November 2006 (Novell approached Microsoft)
• Reaction in "Boycott Novell" campaign (now part of Techrights)
• Novell boasts vast software patents portfolio (highest per employee), mostly vends proprietary software
• Enabling Microsoft API domination (e.g. Mono, Moonlight)

Role of Novell - ctd.

• Offer of "IP peace of mind" as added value proposition
• FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) - visible component and hidden/implicit component
• Solution: Reward for reasonable behaviour, denounce for counter-productive behaviour

Procurement

• Tradition versus novelty
• Suppliers and "revolving doors"
• Lack of tender
• Dependencies within existing system
• Budget allocation dependent on expectations

Standards

• De facto versus real
• Coercion of standards bodies
• Documentation
• Unilateral enhancements

Business paradigms

• Free distribution
• Same as proprietary (gratis/dumping)
• Enables sharing support/maintenance (services) based on skill, a scarcity
• Barrier: analogies involving "communism", "virus", "unreliable", etc.

Source code Misconceptions

• Increased transparency enhances scrutiny, code quality
• Ability to copy (Plurk)
• Code-sharing liability (no safer than many EULAs)
• Enforcement with gentle requests for compliance, settlements

Advertising/Grassroots/AstroTurf

• Mostly amoral or immoral by nature
• OEM recommendations are advertisements
• Perceived value
• PR agencies manipulate journalists (gifts, ridicule, harassment through editors)
• Policing of reputation, e.g. in Wikipedia
• Hired agents (through peripheral agencies) to mock the competition

Bundling

• Removal of choice
• Perception of market integration (monocultural)
• Insistence that customers demand what they are forced to receive
• Increase of market dependency through ISVs
• Browser/operating system/x86...

Legacy systems/lock-in

• Assisted by bundling
• System inter-connected with other systems
• Designed to elevate exit barriers
• Different lock-in layers: Hardware/architecture, database, file formats, business processes...

Conflicts of interests

• Human Resources (HR) issue
• Company that buys hires from company that sells
• Company that advises hires from company that buys/sells
• People's interpersonal relationship/preferences/habits/dogma do not change overnight
• Corporate culture depends upon management and shareholders
• Protectionism, plans for one's future after departing/retiring

Barrier Example #1

Subscription as obligatory part of business model - "enterprise" and "community" edition

Proprietary prerequisites

Barrier Example #2

• Acquisition of skewed research

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics"

• Advertising/contracts partly designed for conflicts of interests
• Fitting the figures and methods for required outcome
• One must pay the "analyst tax" - high budgets required to influence consensus

Barrier Example #3

Kickbacks, MoU ("Project Marshal")

Barrier Example #4

• Counterfeiting spin
• EDGI (details in Comes vs Microsoft)

"They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

-Bill Gates

"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not."

-Bill Gates

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

• KHTML versus WebKit
• Firms created/run by former Microsoft executives generating money from GPL FUD, adding dependency on proprietary software
• Software licences that Microsoft controls
• Boards and conferences stacked by proprietary software companies under "Open Source" banner

Take-home messages

• Technical barriers are imposed to serve as the strengths of proprietary software proponents
• Ruthless, abrasive behaviour rewarded
• Wealth grants power to impact decisions, perception, law
• Education required to highlight these issues
• Evidence required for effective response (e.g. verifiable court exhibits, exposing improper appointments, cronyism)

Techrights.org accumulates and organises information, initiatives awareness campaigns

Discussion