From muguet at mdpi.net Fri Mar 9 04:28:52 2007 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Fri Mar 9 04:25:36 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] Say NO to Digital Shackles : sign the open letter to Steve Jobs Message-ID: <45F0D474.4050208@mdpi.net> Dear Freedom supporters No to Digital Shackles, no to DRMs ! http://defectivebydesign.com/actions/open_letter/steve_jobs Sign the open letter to Steve Jobs today! 23 days, 14 hours, 31 minutes, 57 seconds until we decide -- Pledge or Prank?. ------------------- An Open Letter to Steve Jobs Introduction: We surpassed our target of 1000 signatures in just 5 hours! Now lets see how many we can get by April 1. Sign this letter to Steve Jobs asking him to back his pledge on DRM by April 1. We will send the letter, with your comments to Steve, on April 1, and include a big thank you because he has taken one of these actions, or a jesters hat for him to wear if he hasn't. We will publish the best/funniest comments through out the month! Dear Steve Jobs, We would like to thank you for your public statements about Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and your pledge to drop DRM from iTunes if the four major record labels---EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony---let you. As you know, the Free Software Foundation's campaign against DRM, DefectiveByDesign.org, has specifically targeted Apple since it launched in May 2006. As activists against DRM, we have supported these high-profile protests outside Apple stores in the US and in the UK because, as the largest purveyor of DRMed music, Apple carries a large part of the responsibility for the situation in which consumers now find themselves. But Apple is under pressure not just from anti-DRM activists and from a consumer boycott of DRM, but also from consumer rights regulators in Europe who have declared iTunes's DRM (FairPlay) illegal. In Norway regulators have given you until October 1, 2007 to open up iTunes or be forced to close down under penalty of daily fines. Similar moves are being made by consumer regulators across Europe. To many observers your blog pledge looks like a way to reduce pressure on Apple from these regulators, and head off calls from the industry to license FairPLay to other distributors. It has been three weeks now since you published your pledge to drop DRM, and there have been many responses from commentators who have outlined actions you could take to back up your words. The fact that you have not taken any action leads us to ask the question: How genuine is your pledge? We have identified three ways you could show your sincerity about DRM. Taking action on any one of these fronts would be a powerful demonstration that you mean business. 1) Drop DRM on iTunes for independent artists Many independent artists and labels distribute their music through iTunes and many wish to do so without DRM, but you won't let them. You could show good faith immediately by dropping DRM for those artists and labels. This will make it clear which artists are actually locked to one of the four big labels, allowing your customers to avoid those labels and the burden of DRM. Independent artists, who respect the desire of the fan to be free from DRM restrictions, will receive more support. You can set the ethical example and be the first "major" to drop DRM, by freeing independent artists. You have the direct power to do this. 2) Drop DRM on iTunes for Disney movies and video In your blog post you say, "[The] alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats." That is a powerful image, and one that we and the free software movement shares with you. But why is your imagination limited to a world without DRM on music? You don't once mention movies or video. We understand that Apple is busy signing contracts with movie studios and TV networks to allow Apple to sell video and movies to iPod users. These videos are delivered with DRM. The arguments that you make in your blog apply equally to movies as they do to music. In 2006 you sold Pixar to Disney, and in the process became the largest single shareholder in Disney and joined the board of directors. Disney was the first to agree to distribute its movies through iTunes. Disney is a major movie distributor but not a major music publisher. You can set the example in the arena of video and movies. Disney can be the first "major" to drop DRM. You have the direct power to do this. 3) Take a public stand against DRM and legislation mandating DRM by funding a campaign to repeal the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's (DMCA) prohibitions. In your blog you say that we could "... abolish DRMs completely", and that Apple would "embrace it in a heartbeat". These words are very close to calling for DRM to be eliminated. We encourage you to make such a statement explicitly. This is an important action because of the legislative threats we face. Senator Feinstein (D - Calif.), in this congressional session, has reintroduced the Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act (PERFORM Act). The Act would require webcasters who stream in MP3 (or other non-DRM formats) to impose DRM. This would include the radio stations currently available through iTunes, which currently rely on MP3 streams. The impact of DRM and the DMCA will have chilling effects on our freedom of speech. In a world where our radio shows, TV shows, news, and political coverage, come laden with DRM---because digital TV, digital radio and webstreaming have been mandated to use DRM---we will have lost the legal right to make commentary using source materials. Free speech through parody and quotation will have disappeared. As someone who has imposed a DRM scheme on millions of people and made millions of dollars doing so, it is time for you to take a stand against DRM as unethical and as a threat to our freedoms. You can set the example by calling for the elimination of DRM and by funding a campaign to repeal the DMCA's prohibition on devices that overcome DRM. You have the direct power to do this. While we welcome your pledge to drop DRM, action has yet to follow. Some changes you discuss will require the cooperation of other people in the media industry, but the three areas that we have outlined here do not. You have the full power to allow independent artists to sell their music on iTunes without DRM, to remove DRM from Disney videos and movies, and to fund a campaign to repeal the DMCA's prohibition on devices that overcome DRM. We, the undersigned, call upon you to take action now. Yours Truly, ------------------- Best Francis -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet@mdpi.org muguet@mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet@ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ From muguet at mdpi.net Thu Mar 15 01:30:28 2007 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Thu Mar 15 01:26:58 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] [Fwd: [iiep-oer] UNESCO Open Training Platform: Advocating open content for non formal education for development] Message-ID: <45F893A4.70308@mdpi.net> FYI -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [iiep-oer] UNESCO Open Training Platform: Advocating open content for non formal education for development Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:09:51 +0100 From: Arrou, Armelle Reply-To: iiep-oer-opencontent@communities.unesco.org To: Dear all, We are pleased to inform you about the availability of an Open Training Platform _http://www.opentrainingplatform.com _ launched by the UNESCO Communication and Information Sector. The primary objective of this initiative is to increase access to resources for trainers, specialized communities in all development fields and local communities, from UN, development agencies, NGOs, associations, etc. Although at the moment much of the content is copyright protected, we are aiming to sensitize UN staff and other training producers to the importance of open content licensing. The second objective is therefore to use the platform as a tool to sensitize contributors and promote the use of open licenses: - individuals or organizations submitting material are contacted regarding copyright to check the openness of the content and invite them to choose open licenses; - information is available on open licenses to help trainers understand and use them; - visitors can choose to search only for open content. Since we also aim to promote the open content movement, our approach is to use those means we have at our disposal. For this reason, =93Open=94 is included in the name in an effort to do just that =96 to raise awareness and promote open content in non formal education for development among those involved in training or producing non formal education material, and UNESCO and UN institutions staff as well. Best regards, Armelle Arrou Information Society Division UNESCO 1 rue Miollis F-75732 Paris Cedex 15 Tel: 33 1 45 68 42 08 -- = ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet@mdpi.org muguet@mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet@ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: message-footer.txt Url: http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/attachments/20070315/c346= 0a4e/message-footer.txt From muguet at mdpi.net Sun Mar 25 23:04:28 2007 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Sun Mar 25 23:00:18 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] UNESCO scandal Message-ID: <4606E3DC.1010200@mdpi.net> FYI It is not impossible that this scandal is going to have consequences on UNESCO policies and WSIS implementation, specifically concerning Education, but also concerning Free Software. My personnal information from reliable sources inside UNESCO confirms the first 3 accounts, which anyway are not saying everything on personnal relationships in this affair. ------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/20/news/unesco.php American official at Unesco quits amid auditing rebuke By Alan Riding Tuesday, March 20, 2007 PARIS: The highest-ranking American official at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization resigned just days before an official audit reported that he had violated Unesco's rules by granting seven contracts to an American consulting firm without an open bidding procedure. The official, Peter Smith, who had served for 21 months as assistant director general for education at Unesco's Paris headquarters, said in a letter dated March 12 that he was resigning because of a "threat against my life, the inadequate support and follow-up to that threat, and a negative climate in the workplace." He said that he would step down when his contract ended on June 17. But last week, Unesco's director general, Koichiro Matsuura, accepted his resignation with immediate effect. Smith, a 61-year-old former president of California State University, Monterey Bay, who represented Vermont in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from 1989 to 1990, has reportedly left France and could not be reached for comment on the audit, which was made public Monday. The report by France's Cour des Comptes, an independent accounting body that supervises the French government and is also Unesco's external auditor, was requested last fall by Unesco's executive board after staff members had complained about contracts worth $2.1 million granted by Smith to Navigant Consulting, a Chicago-based firm. Among its findings, the Cour des Comptes said that the reasons for selecting Navigant "are not immediately apparent." It noted that the "restricted bidding procedure" used "was conducted in a way that rendered it ineffective." It said that "incomplete" information on the bidding procedure was provided to Unesco's contracts committee. It concluded that "the fees payable on the various contracts were not negotiated in any verifiable manner." A Unesco spokeswoman, Sue Williams, said that Matsuura had agreed to implement the 55-page report's recommendations for tightening Unesco contract procedures. She said that any further response to the report would come from the 58-nation executive board, which would meet here next month. The case represents something of an embarrassment to the United States, which ended a 19-year boycott of Unesco in 2003 amid pledges to accelerate reforms of the organization. At the time, with the Bush administration giving priority to Unesco's work in education, it was considered logical for an American to head up its education department. "It's a blow to the United States because it always spoke of moralizing Unesco," said an ambassador to Unesco, who asked not to be named because of his country's ties with the United States. Unesco officials said that, after Smith took up his post in June 2005, he immediately embarked on reorganizing the education department. But diplomats said that they were surprised early last year when he called an informal meeting of ambassadors to discuss his plans. At the meeting, they said, the presentation was made, not by Smith, but by Letitia Chambers, managing director of Navigant's Washington office. In his resignation letter, Smith made no direct reference to Chambers, but he noted that, in his reform plan, "the products developed by our staff with Navigant Consulting were essential elements of the overall effort." He said that he agreed with changes recommended by the organization's external auditor. However, much of his letter was devoted to praising his department's work and complaining about internal resistance to the reforms. "There is a small group who have worked steadily since the unveiling of the reform recommendations," he wrote to Matsuura, "to kill the reforms by discrediting me, attacking you and demonizing America." He also recalled that on Feb. 9 he received a written death threat, to which he felt Unesco responded inadequately. Williams, the Unesco spokeswoman, said that the French police had investigated the death threat and recommended to Smith that he not discuss it publicly. --------------------------------- http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items07/090207-4.html UNESCO - a scandal comes from America By Charles Perera The corridors of the UNESCO are bristling in muted chatter with a scandal about men, money and mistresses that is new to its nearly sixty year history. In an atmosphere charged with angry emotion an anonymous note prepared by more radical of senior staff members goes its round within the precincts of this Noble Institution. It denounces the proposed reforms which put the principles themselves of the United Nations seriously into question. The 58 member Executive Board elected last October itself taken by surprise, called for an immediate investigation on the strange consultation contracts entered into by Peter Smith, the Deputy Director General of UNESCO in-charge of the Education Sector. Mr. Peter Smith recruited at the beginning of 2005, was a former Republican Congressman, from Vermont before he became the founding President of a small University in the State of Monterey Bay in California. His appointment marked the return of United State of America to the UNESCO decided by George Bush in 2002, who was seeking support of the United Nations before his army adventured into Iraq. No sooner than he came he was able to create displeasure among the specialist in Education who came under his management. Peter Smith was charged with a mission to find ways and means to improve the Education Sector. He began by hiring a Washington based American consultant agency Navigant Consulting. It was a surprise choice as the company is specialised in reorganising of Industries, Banks and Insurances, without even a Paris based Office. It was his personal contact Letitia Chambers who was put in charge of the project at that end, and her commuting expenses itself have enhanced the cost of the contracts. Peter Smith apparently wanted only her and nobody else to handle the project. The seven consulting contracts with the Navigant Consulting between June, 2005 and August 2006 for a handsome sum of 2,14 million Dollars entered into without calling for tenders was in breach of the financial regulations of the UNESCO. Peter Smith had insisted to go ahead with the seventh contract with the same team, despite the UNESCO Committee of Contracts, evaluated the proposals for the seventh contract as vague, and in no way different from the mediocrity of the previous stage of the project. The Navigant Consulting had the exclusive right of use of the enormous budget at their disposal without challenge or control. It was this procedural drift that caused the Executive Board in October, 2006 to request Mr. Philippe S?guin of the External Audits of UNESCO since 2006, to investigate the procedures that had been followed to select the Navigant Consulting Company. The investigation is also to determine why Koichiro Matsura , the Director General of UNESCO had all along supported the decision of his Deputy Director without putting the project before the Executive Board , as it should have normally been done. Some of the Member States consider the reforms proposed by the Navigant Consulting are inconsistent and detrimental to the cause of UNESCO, in that a number of operational sections is to be reduced in favour of administrative services. Another allegation brought against Peter Smith is that he has sidelined the UNESCO Literacy Programme, the priority project of UNESCO since 1945. Not favourable to suggestions or criticism of his single minded plans and projects, he retaliated against the critics by having them transferred out from the UNESCO Head Quarters to Beirut, Lagos, Dakar and Bangkok, without finding it necessary to give them any explanation.. Another initiative of Peter Smith that made an outcry at the time was transferring 200,000 dollars from the UNESCO budget reserved for the literacy projects in Mauritania, Iraq and Palestine to finance a conference hosted by Laura Bush and the White-House for half a day in New York, on the 18 of last September. The First Lady participated as the Honorary Ambassador of the United Nations Literacy Decade. Several Diplomats were also shocked to learn that between July,2005 and2006 the University of Monterey Bay had paid to Peter Smith 157,932 Dollars while he was already employed in the UNESCO. The rules of ethic bars an International Civil Servant from receiving a salary for any other employment. However, on the 15 November, 2006 the California Faculty Association a University Trade Union has filed legal action , claiming that the payment was illegal. Searching his past some have found that the University of Peter Smith had been dragged in to justice by three of its Staff Members for discriminatory action against them for reason of their racial origin. An arrangement had been made to pay them 2.5 million Dollars to stop legal proceedings. The scandal does not help to enhance the already low prestige of America. (References: Prot?g? de Bush fait scandale ? Paris by Patrice Piquard in Capital January,2007 and California Faculty Winter 2007) Easynic - your perfect web partner http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/03/dogs_dont_bark_for_the_gop.html American conservatives love to go after the UN, even on the most dubious charges. So why aren't they doing so when a Republican is involved? Sherlock Holmes aficionados will remember the story about the dog that did not bark. It sprang to mind this week as I strained to hear the deafening sound of silence from the usual suspects - the Murdoch/Fox hunters - who are so well trained to bay at the first hint of a UN corruption story. Consider. A senior official of a UN agency that Washington banned for many years because of its alleged corruption and anti-American bias has just resigned, shortly before the auditors closed in with a devastating report. The official is a former legislator from the party currently running his government back home - and currently mired in nepotism and corruption scandals. Nominated by his President, once ensconced in the agency's offices, the official sliced and diced consultancy contracts into segments smaller than $100,000 so that he could award them on a no-bid basis to an influential company back home. To do so, he used funds totaling over $2m earmarked to combat illiteracy in Africa, and even used half a million at one point for a sycophantic reception in honour of the spouse of the president who nominated him. These charges were made in the French press three months ago, and have been circulating among the knowledgeable ever since - even though those who raised questions about the official found themselves transferred from Paris to plum postings like Zimbabwe. Wow. Are the Foxes hunting? Is the Wall Street Journal op-ed page about to declare war on someone and demand US withdrawal from the UN? No. The sound of silence is deafening. Why? Elementary, my dear Watson. The official concerned is former American Republican Congressman Peter Smith, nominated by President George W Bush to go to UNESCO and reform the organization after 19 years of American boycott. UNESCO is based in Paris, and the auditors are those used by the French government. The company that was the beneficiary of Smith's Halliburtonesque contracting practices was Navigant, a big Washington company whose website, you will notice, does not claim any educational expertise at all. UNESCO critics claim he transferred over $200,000 from literacy projects in Mauritania, Iraq and Palestine to bankroll the conference hosted by Laura Bush and the White House in September last year, where Ms Bush was feted as the Honorary Ambassador of the United Nations Literacy Decade. The New York caterer was the beneficiaries of the children's loss. Of course, it is possible that he is entirely innocent. But when you consider the Oil for Food allegations, you have to wonder why some parts of the fourth estate don't show the same restraint before going after foreigners, liberals and globalists of various hues. Indeed, the relative silence is an interesting contrast to the two year furor over the Oil For Food programme. After hyperbolic talk of billions of dollars improperly diverted, the scandal ended up as a whimper, not a bang: The allegation is now that the former head of the programme, Benon Sevan, received $160,000 over four years, which is claimed to have come from a friend who bought oil from Saddam Hussein. Sevan had declared it on his UN forms, saying it came from his aunt, and denies any connection. (Of course, he is a Cypriot, and spent a lifetime working for the UN, and had no known connection with the GOP - so his guilt has been assumed from the beginning.) But the silence is also reminiscent of the blanket over the $10bn that the UN Oil for Food programme handed over to US occupation authorities. Congressman Henry Waxman has been trying to find out what happened - and has been quite successful in uncovering the serious incompetence and corruption of the Americans who handled these huge bricks of cash. His efforts have had less than one per cent of the publicity of the unproven and frankly dubious Oil for Food scandal. The lesson is clear. If you want to be corrupt in the UN, being an influential Republican is as good as ticking the box for no publicity. and the other view : http://washingtontimes.com/world/20070320-095607-5953r.htm U.S. envoy to UNESCO quits amid turmoil Published March 21, 2007 Advertisement PARIS (AP) -- The highest-ranking American at UNESCO has resigned before a key audit of contracts that his office awarded, saying opponents thwarted his reform drive at the U.N. organization and even threatened to kill him. Peter Smith, a former Republican congressman from Vermont, sent a letter to UNESCO Director Koichiro Matsuura saying that fierce opposition to his reforms and the "negative climate" forced him to quit. Mr. Smith had served as associate director general for education. A copy of the letter, dated Monday, was obtained by the Associated Press on Friday. Mr. Smith's departure was the latest bump in the U.S. relationship with the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization. The United States quit UNESCO in 1984, calling it corrupt and anti-Western, then rejoined in 2003. Mr. Smith, former president of California State University, Monterey Bay, joined UNESCO in 2005 and led a reform drive of its education sector. "There is a small group who have worked steadily since the unveiling of the reform recommendations to kill the reforms by discrediting me, attacking you and demonizing America," he wrote. Mr. Smith said the opposition culminated in a written death threat in February, and that UNESCO's follow-up to the threat was "inadequate." UNESCO spokeswoman Sue Williams said the organization immediately contacted French police about the death threat and that police began a criminal investigation. "UNESCO considers it did everything possible under the circumstances," she said. Responding to Mr. Smith's assertions that opponents sought to thwart his reforms, Miss Williams said: "Those are his perceptions of the situation. Reform is always a difficult process; there are always people who are unhappy with parts of it. There has also been very outspoken support for the reform process and its results so far." Mr. Smith's resignation comes before the publication of an audit that is expected to be highly critical of how UNESCO awarded contracts for its education sector reform. The audit by the French Cour des Comptes, UNESCO's external auditor, will be released next week. French business magazine Capital reported that Mr. Smith awarded seven contracts worth a total of $2 million to Washington-based Navigant Consulting without proper oversight from UNESCO's Executive Board. A UNESCO education official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the case is pending, told the AP that the Navigant contracts were among those being audited. Mr. Smith, in his letter, called these accusations an example of the "lies, unfounded rumors and innuendo" used to discredit him -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet@mdpi.org muguet@mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet@ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------