Digital Copyright Canada

  I want to give my thinking on this to see if others feel it is sound.  
Hopefully by discussing it I will be able to make the case clearly in my
submission, and others may want to use similar arguments in their
submissions.

  I wish to use the existing case history of PLCOM.net (text below) that I
have helped with to give the case that allowing the protection of file
formats (such as the DVD and eBook formats) can potentially put
governments in breach of technical standards and government procurement
aspects of trade law.

  The basic question I want to answer and find case history for:  if the
storage format is proprietary and controlled by a cartel, is the
government in breach by procuring or storing information in these formats?

Note on "cartel" : the dictionary
<http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=cartel> defines as "A
combination of independent business organizations formed to regulate
production, pricing, and marketing of goods by the members".  This is
pretty much the definition of the DVD CCA (Content Control Association)
which seems clearly to exists to regulate production of players, have
price fixing in the player market, and make illegal the
production/marketing of compatable/competative players.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 RMS clarifies Freedom http://www.gnu.org/press/2001-05-04-GPL.html
 Free Sklyarov http://www.dibona.com/dmca/ http://www.freesklyarov.org/ 
 http://www.flora.org/dmca/ Oppose DMCA in Canada!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 14:32:52 -0400
From: Russell McOrmond <russell@flora.ca>
To: russell@flora.org

      A Victory for Linux at The Canadian International Trade Tribunal

    A Brief History of File No.: PR-2000-059

   On December 29, 2000, The Department of Public Works and Government
   Services (PWGSC) published on Canada's Electronic Tendering Service
   (MERX) an Advanced Contract Award Notice (ACAN) for Solicitation No.
   39014-010701/A, sole-sourcing the contract to Densan Consultants, Ltd.
   The procurement in question was for an electronic media monitoring
   system to be delivered to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
   [1]P&L Communications (PLCom) of Ottawa, Ontario, produces a
   web/intranet-based media-monitoring application called [2]InfoLynx,
   and wished to be given an opportunity to compete for this contract. On
   January 15, 2001, PLCom submitted a challenge to the ACAN, asking that
   the procurement be opened up for competition. The CFIA responded by
   stating that InfoLynx did not meet the mandatory technical
   requirements because it ran on Linux and PHP, and not Windows NT and
   ASP. PLCom was exasperated at this response. First of all it was
   technically incorrect: InfoLynx does indeed run on Linux, but is built
   with C++ and mod_perl and contains no PHP code. More importantly the
   response was in serious breach of the trade regulations. PLCom felt
   that it had to seek legal action, or go out of business, as this was
   the third solicitation in the past 12 months that mandated Windows NT.

   A procurement of this type is governed by two documents: the Agreement
   on Internal Trade (AIT) and The North American Free Trade Agreement
   (NAFTA). The overriding principle in both documents is that
   competition is the norm. If any restrictive measures are imposed by a
   government acency, that agency must show why those restrictions were
   necessary. In this case, the CFIA and PWGSC had issued an ACAN that
   made no mention of any platform-related technical requirements, then
   had after the fact imposed vendor-specific requirements. On February
   8, 2001, P&L Communications filed a [3]complaint before the Canadian
   International Trade Tribunal (CITT). The complaint contained the
   following passage:

     Third, PLCom submits that all the so-called mandatory requirements
     for Microsoft-branded software are specious, technically
     irrelevant, unfair and unnecessarily restrictive. PLCom's Infolynx
     system is a Web-based/HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
     application that functions independent of the Network OS (Operating
     System). It is therefore specious and technically invalid to
     specify Windows/NT/IIS as a mandatory software requirement.
     Infolynx is entirely compatible with the TCP/IP network at the CFIA
     even if it is run on a Linux or Unix OS. The system functions much
     like a network appliance such as a network printer and because the
     entire Linux application is run and administered through a Web
     Browser Interface, the system is entirely independent of the
     Network OS.
     In any event, a requirement mandating the use of specific
     trademarked or patented products is a breach of NAFTA Article 1007
     which requires that technical specifications be specified in terms
     of performance criteria and that functional equivalents must be
     allowed. PWGSC's requirement for Microsoft product names and the
     Microsoft trademarks "Windows NT", "Microsoft Information Server
     (IIS)"and Microsoft "Active Server Page Scripting (ASP)" as its
     principal technical specification is thus contrary to NAFTA Article
     1007 (3). PLCom also points out that the invocation of such
     Microsoft product brands has the effect of creating a Microsoft
     monopoly within the Federal government, thereby stifling open trade
     and free competition in Canada for electronic media monitoring
     system software.

   On May 30, 2001, after considerable debate between the interested
   parties, the CITT ruled that PLCom's original complaint was [4]valid.

    Relevant Documents

   The original complaint, filed February 8, 2001, can be found [5]here.

   The CITT ruling, issued May 30, 2001, can be found in HTML format
   [6]here.

   The CITT ruling, issued May 30, 2001, can be found in PDF format
   [7]here.

References

   1. http://www.plcom.net/
   2. http://www.plcom.net/news/infolynx/index.php3
   3. http://www.plcom.net/citt/cfia_comp.html
   4. http://www.plcom.net/citt/cfia_ruling.html
   5. http://www.plcom.net/citt/cfia_comp.html
   6. http://www.plcom.net/citt/cfia_ruling.html
   7. http://www.plcom.net/citt/pr2a059e.pdf

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