OSFA joins OSI in refuting IIPA's attack on open source

Open Source For America (OSFA), an organisation created to promote the use of open source in government, has denounced the IIPA's "Special 301" call saying it is irresponsible and misleading. The International Intellectual Property Association (IIPA) had called for the US Trade Representative to place countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and India, on a "Special 301" watch list, normally reserved for dictatorships or repressive regimes, because the governments advocate the use of open source. OSFA say that this request is "both irresponsible and misleading in its characterisation of OSS".

The Open Source Initiative last week categorically rejected the IIPA's position calling it a "blatant case of selective enforcement" and called on organisations such as Open Source For America to take action. The OSFA say they believe that the IIPA ignore key issues, such as open source being intellectual property that encourages market competition. It also notes that it is not only used by the US government, but the US Department of Defense issued guidance in 2009 on the positive aspects of open source software.

The OSFA was founded in 2009 by a number of organisations and companies including Red Hat, Alfresco, the EFF, the Mozilla Foundation, Google, Novell, Debian, Canonical, Oracle, SugrarCRM and Ingres.

(djwm)