[kictanet] Intellectual Property (IP), Copyrights, Infringement, Access to Knowledge

[Alex Gakuru]

Dear All,

I have an assignment that will definitely  strengthen
the consumer but for that to happen much
sooner,better, and a lot easier I need your help.

A practical example: Cyber cafes around town
infringing on Microsoft Windows 2000 have less than
1-month to purchase XP or Vista else they will be
arraigned in court by the company and/or its agents.

Anyone who wants to purchase "licences" for the
Windows 2000 cannot do so because  Microsoft says they
no longer support that product. This means that one
has to upgrade to Vista, quite an unpopular product
according to this study:
http://www.windowsvistaweblog.com/2007/09/22/2-percent-of-companies-upgraded-to-windows-vista-in-uk/

Meagre revenue generating Cyber cafe are expected to
spend more 15 million in new hardware to support vista
in addition to Microsoft software licenses else they
face legal action. Fortunately, Free and Open Source
Software run very fast on old computers. (Mine is 533
MHz! and it runs great)

In total, Kenya has about 700,000 computers most
running on whatever windows and it is also said that
the level of infringement is 85% (see below). If every
computer were to run on "licensed" windows, them the
capital flight from Kenya would be  700,000(PCs) x 17,
000 (windowsXP) = Kshs  11,900,000,000 (approx.20
billion). Add Shs 17.5 billion for Microsoft Office
retailing at Kshs 25,000 per copy making a total of
shillings 29.4 billion (about the amount Finance
Ministry hopes to get from sale of Safaricom shares?)
Free and Open Source Software has free OpenOffice and
hundred of thousands of other free software...

-------------------------------------------------------------
Country      GDP/cap (US$)   PCs('000)     Piracy
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kenya           1,200           700        81%
S.Africa       13,300         3,100        35%
USA            44,000       200,000        21%
Malawi            600            60        85%
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Speaker at Commonwealth Telecommunications
Organisation's "Connecting Rural Communities-Africa
Forum" at Nairobi. (I prefer use of "license
infringement" as opposed to  pre-condemning "piracy")

In order to assist me in addressing this consumer and
development and related issues, please fill and send
back the attached questionnaire.For more info see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_to_Knowledge_movement.

I have attached the questionnaire in two of various
"save as" formats OpenOffice Word Processor offers (
Microsoft Word".doc" and OpenOffice .odt). Please fill
and return ASAP to help me make a more informed Rapid
Assessment Study.

asante.

Alex

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