No software industry in the EU and open source is under the thumb of big business

Posted on March 7, 2006
Filed Under Open Source, Public Policy |

The title of this post more or less reflects the comments of Jesús Villasante, the head of software technologies at the EC’s Information Society and Media Directorate General for the European Union. Link via Mark.

Villasante is critical of open source for not standing up and sticking it to the man, apparently he is of the opinion that open source is a zero sum game where OSS wins when traditional, which I guess means proprietary, technology loses.

“Open source communities need to take themselves seriously and realise they have contribution to themselves and society. From the moment they realise they are part of the evolution of society and try to influence it, we will be moving in the right direction,”

Where do I even go with that quote, it’s filled with self righteousness and indignation about the “American multinationals” that control the technology industry to the detriment of the EU.

“the open source community today [is a] subcontractor of American multinationals,”

Maybe the solution is to have the EU establish a tax that could be levied against OSS companies and “American multinationals” alike and used to fund a research institute that will provide jobs for European software engineers who want to work on socially responsible technology projects, the results of which will be licensed back to OSS in order to incentivize them to be better citizens? Damn, I should run for a seat in the EU Parliament. My first order of business, in order to increase EU competitiveness, would be to eliminate the level of beaurocracy that results in officials making statements like this:

“Firstly, I’m not responsible for software patents — the software patent directive is managed by the director general of Internal [Market]. The opinion of the director general of Information Society [the division where Villasante works] is not necessarily the same as the director general of Internal.”

Maybe Villasante should give up his plush post at the EU and go out and sling it in the real world before lecturing the open source community on how to change it.

Comments

  • Feeds