www/philosophy wsis.html

[Yavor Doganov]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Yavor Doganov <yavor>   08/07/26 16:47:13

Modified files:
        philosophy     : wsis.html 

Log message:
        Amend the link to hrichina.org; minor boilerplate compliance changes.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/wsis.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.10&r2=1.11

Patches:
Index: wsis.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/wsis.html,v
retrieving revision 1.10
retrieving revision 1.11
diff -u -b -r1.10 -r1.11
--- wsis.html   19 Aug 2007 21:11:12 -0000      1.10
+++ wsis.html   26 Jul 2008 16:46:55 -0000      1.11
@@ -16,11 +16,12 @@
 <span style="margin-left: 30%">-- Richard Stallman</span></p>
 </blockquote>
 
-<p>The World Summit on the Information Society is supposed to formulate
-plans to end the "digital divide" and make the internet accessible to
-everyone on Earth. The negotiations were completed in November, so the
-big official meeting in Geneva last week was more of a trade show and
-conference than a real summit meeting.</p>
+<p>The World Summit on the Information Society is supposed to
+formulate plans to end the &ldquo;digital divide&rdquo; and make the
+internet accessible to everyone on Earth.  The negotiations were
+completed in November, so the big official meeting in Geneva last week
+was more of a trade show and conference than a real summit
+meeting.</p>
 
 <p>The summit procedures were designed so that non-governmental
 organizations (mainly those that promote human rights and equality,
@@ -42,51 +43,55 @@
 money from Microsoft).  The outcome was a sort of draw, with the final
 declaration presenting free software, open source, and proprietary
 software as equally legitimate. The US also insisted on praising
-so-called "intellectual property rights". (That biased term <a href=
-"http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty";>promotes
-simplistic over-generalization</a>; for the sake of clear thinking
-about the issues of copyright law, and about the very different issues
-of patent law, that term should always be avoided.)</p>
+so-called &ldquo;intellectual property rights&rdquo;.  (That biased
+term <a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty">
+promotes simplistic over-generalization</a>; for the sake of clear
+thinking about the issues of copyright law, and about the very
+different issues of patent law, that term should always be
+avoided.)</p>
     
 <p>The declaration calls on governments to ensure unhindered access to
 the public domain, but says nothing about whether any additional works
 should ever enter the public domain.</p>
     
-<p>Human rights were given lip service, but the proposal for a "right
-to communicate" (not merely to access information) using the internet
-was shot down by many of the countries. The summit has been criticized
-for situating its 2005 meeting in Tunisia, which is a prime example of
-what the information society must not do. People have been <a href=
-"http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2777389.stm";>imprisoned in
-Tunisia for using the internet to criticize the government</a>.
+<p>Human rights were given lip service, but the proposal for a
+&ldquo;right to communicate&rdquo; (not merely to access information)
+using the internet was shot down by many of the countries.  The summit
+has been criticized for situating its 2005 meeting in Tunisia, which
+is a prime example of what the information society must not do.
+People have
+been <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2777389.stm";>
+imprisoned in Tunisia for using the internet to criticize the
+government</a>.
 </p>
     
-<p>Suppression of criticism has been evident here at the summit too. A
-counter-summit, actually a series of talks and discussions, was
+<p>Suppression of criticism has been evident here at the summit too.
+A counter-summit, actually a series of talks and discussions, was
 planned for last Tuesday, but it was shut down by the Geneva police
 who clearly were searching for an excuse to do so. First they claimed
 that the landlord did not approve use of the space, but the tenant who
 has a long-term lease for the space then arrived and said he had
 authorized the event. So the police cited a fire code violation which
-I'm told is applicable to most buildings in Geneva--in effect, an
+I'm told is applicable to most buildings in Geneva&mdash;in effect, an
 all-purpose excuse to shut down anything. Press coverage of this
 maneuver eventually forced the city to allow the counter-summit to
 proceed on Wednesday in a different location.</p>
     
 <p>In a more minor act of suppression, the moderator of the official
-round table in which I spoke told me "your time is up" well before the
-three minutes each participant was supposed to have. She later did the
-same thing to the EPIC representative. I later learned that she works
-for the International Chamber of Commerce--no wonder she silenced
-us. And how telling that the summit would put a representative of the
-ICC at the throttle when we spoke.</p>
+round table in which I spoke told me &ldquo;your time is up&rdquo;
+well before the three minutes each participant was supposed to have.
+She later did the same thing to the EPIC representative.  I later
+learned that she works for the International Chamber of
+Commerce&mdash;no wonder she silenced us.  And how telling that the
+summit would put a representative of the ICC at the throttle when we
+spoke.</p>
     
 <p>Suppression was also visible in the exclusion of certain NGOs from
 the summit because their focus on human rights might embarrass the
-governments that trample them. For instance, the summit <a href=
-"http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/news_item.adp?news_id=1527";>refused to
-accredit Human Rights In China</a>, a group that criticizes the
-Chinese government for (among other things) censorship of the
+governments that trample them.  For instance, the
+summit <a href="http://iso.hrichina.org/public/contents/13710";>
+refused to accredit Human Rights In China</a>, a group that criticizes
+the Chinese government for (among other things) censorship of the
 internet.</p>
     
 <p><a href="http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8774";>Reporters
@@ -101,11 +106,11 @@
 several people came together to plan an organization to help
 organizations in Africa switch to GNU/Linux. But the summit did
 nothing to support this activity beyond providing an occasion for us
-to meet. Nor, I believe, was it intended to support any such
-thing. The overall attitude of the summit can be seen in its having
-invited Microsoft to speak alongside, and before, most of the various
-participating governments--as if to accord that criminal corporation
-the standing of a state.</p>
+to meet.  Nor, I believe, was it intended to support any such thing.
+The overall attitude of the summit can be seen in its having invited
+Microsoft to speak alongside, and before, most of the various
+participating governments&mdash;as if to accord that criminal
+corporation the standing of a state.</p>
 
 </div>
 
@@ -115,10 +120,10 @@
 <p>
 Please send FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to 
 <a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
-There are also <a href="http://www.fsf.org/about/contact.html";>other ways to 
contact</a> 
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 
 the FSF.
 <br />
-Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
+Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
 <a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
 </p>
 
@@ -129,14 +134,14 @@
 translations of this article.
 </p>
 
-<p>Copyright (C) 2003 Richard M. Stallman<br /> Verbatim copying and
-distribution of this entire article are permitted without royalty in
-any medium provided this notice is preserved.</p>
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2003 Richard M. Stallman<br />
+Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted
+without royalty in any medium provided this notice is preserved.</p>
 
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2007/08/19 21:11:12 $
+$Date: 2008/07/26 16:46:55 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>