Digital Copyright Canada

Copying Innovation Secretariat, IPPD (Copyright and Patent policy are a
core part of this submission), and the Competition Bureau (IPEG issues).

  I have also copied my own MP, and Bcc'd a number of other MP's and 
bureaucrats.  Please pass onward.

   The URL of this document is http://www.flora.ca/innovation-2002.shtml ,
   and  all  links  will be easily selected from this HTML version of the
   document.

   Last update: Date: 2002/08/12 20:40:28 UTC

  Table of Contents

     * Summary
     * Introduction of Author
     * Canada's Innovation Strategy survey
     * Building the innovation infrastructure
     * Intellectual Property Policy
     * Competition  Bureau's Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines
       (IPEG) as example of policy conflict.

  Copyright

   Copyright (C) 2002, Russell McOrmond <http://www.flora.ca/>
   Permission  is  granted  to republish or include this document in your
   own  materials,  in  whole  or  in  part,  as  long  as  some  form of
   acknowledgment  is  made. If the new work is a derivative work, please
   ensure  that it is marked as such so that it will not be confused with
   my own writing.

   Note:  I  considered using the Free Documentation License, but in this
   case  I  wanted  people  to  use any ideas presented here in their own
   submissions.  The  importance  is  to  ensure  that specific ideas are
   presented,  and not specifically that these materials retain all their
   freedoms.

  Summary

   This  submission  will  offer points in favor of Open Source software,
   Open  Source methods, and Open Source business models. Together, these
   various  ways  of  being  open  will offer an environment favorable to
   incremental  and  distributed  innovation. It will also try to suggest
   questions  that  governments  should  investigate  about  the  current
   status-quo of promoting the most risky forms of innovation.
     * Open  Source software is already well known, and includes projects
       like  Apache  (HTTP  Webserver),  OpenOffice.org  (Office  Suite),
       Mozilla.org (Web browser), and Linux/*BSD (Operating Systems).
     * Open  Source  methods involve making use of the open collaborative
       approach  that  makes Open Source software possible, and use these
       beyond simply the production of software.
     * Open  Source  business  models  include  both  innovative business
       models   that   facilitate  making  money  producing  Open  Source
       software, as well as more transparent business itself.

   I  believe  that  being  open  is critical for future innovation. Open
   Source software, and even more-so Free Software, questions some of the
   assumptions  policy  makers  have  made  about the types of incentives
   required for innovation.

   Governments  must  become  more aware of Open Source software, methods
   and business models in two ways.

   First, Governments should become users and contributors to the pool of
   Open Source software. Canada should adopt some of the suggestions made
   by   the   European   Union   IDA   (Interchanged   of   Data  between
   Administrations) suggestions around Pooling Open Source Software.

   Second,  and  most  critical,  Governments  need  to  take Open Source
   software,  methods  and  business  models  into consideration with any
   analysis  of public policy. Many people from the Open Source community
   provided  feedback to the 2001 Copyright reform process, and the ideas
   offered  in  this  input should be applied to more than just Copyright
   policy.

   Some  aspects  of  the  current legislative agenda is a threat to Open
   Source  software,  methods, and businesses. This is especially true in
   jurisdictions  like  the USA that is adopting laws such as the Digital
   Millennium  Copyright  Act  (DMCA) and offering protection to software
   and  business  model  patents.  This agenda is being pushed forward by
   old-economy  businesses  wishing  to  protect  their existing business
   models.  Governments  must  become  aware of the threats to innovation
   that these old ways of doing business represent.

   Is  has been widely demonstrated by many large companies that there is
   a willingness to illegally withhold critical business information from
   shareholders.  It should not be surprising that the various risks from
   closed source and/or proprietary software, secretive (cloak-and-dagger
   trade   secret   heavy)   design  methods,  and  unaccountable  and/or
   non-transparent   business  models,  are  also  not  being  adequately
   disclosed by these industries.

...

   The URL of this document is http://www.flora.ca/innovation-2002.shtml ,
   and  all  links  will be easily selected from this HTML version of the
   document.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
 Getting Open Source and Linux INto GovernmentS | No2Violence in Politics
 http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/942    | http://www.no-dot.ca/

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Submission to Industry Canada, Innovation Strategy, 2002

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