Informativo Camara-e.net - 20/maio

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Câmara Brasileira de Comércio Eletrônico e eBusiness Brasil, entidade focada no provimento de conhecimento de práticas de e-business, anunciam aliança estratégica visando a promoção de ações técnico-institucionais no desenvolvimento de parâmetros regulatórios, políticas governamentais e de mercado, bem como na discussão de processos de gestão das cadeias de valor e comércio colaborativo entre empresas.

Para os sócios da Camara-e.net, a aliança representará, principalmente, o fortalececimento dos Comitês Especiais, que passam a ser assessorados pelos consultores do eBusiness Brasil, coordenados por Richard Lowenthal, que darão todo suporte necessário para o pleno funcionamento dos mesmos.

Além de assessorar os Comitês Especiais já formados, a parceria possibilitará a organização de novos comitês, grupos de trabalho, coalizões e projetos institucionais de nossa entidade. Já estamos planejando iniciativas para os setores de alimentos, turismo, químico e petroquímico, construção civil e imobiliário, automobilístico, broadband e wireless.

Esta ação visa a consolidação de nosso papel como inteligência e voz da Economia Digital no país.

Participe do almoço com o especialista norte-americano em propriedade intelectual, Stephen J. Davidson no próximo dia 26.

Camara-e.net tem atuação marcante nas negociações do Mercosul e União Européia.

Curso de Exportação para os EUA terá início em 26 de maio no ITS - SP.

Camara-e.net participará do IV AHCIET Internet Fórum 2003.

B2Bol é um dos temas do Seminário de Negócios B2B, dia 05/06 na BOVESPA.

Dr. Stephen J. Davidson, chefe do Depto de Direito da Propriedade Intelectual e Tecnologia da Informação do escritório Leonard, Street e Denard de Minneapolis - USA, e ex-presidente da Computer Law Association, Inc, de Washington DC, desembarca no Brasil para coordenar o Curso "Acessando o Mercado dos EUA: Aspectos Legais da Exportação e Comercialização" com início em 26 de maio no ITS em São Paulo. Neste Curso, o Dr. Davidson e o Dr. Ricardo Barreto, do escritório de advocacia Carvalho, Freitas e Ferreira, irão abordar em profundidade os aspectos legais, fiscais e culturais que caracterizam a exportação de software para o mercado norte-americano. Confira abaixo a entrevista com o Dr. Davidson:

1. What are the main challenges of the Brazilian Companies to export to the USA?

Marketing software is a challenging business, and my clients, which range from small software companies to some of the world’s largest, face three principal challenges.

First, there is the legal challenge of developing products in ways that avoid infringing the rights of others and that ensure that the developer owns the intellectual product of its investment. This requires foresight, planning, and discipline, but it is not difficult to do if the developer has a sufficient commitment to doing it right and brings together the proper combination of business, technical, management and legal expertise from the very beginning of the project.

Second, there is the practical challenge of penetrating the market. The U.S.A. represents perhaps the largest consumer market for computer software in the world. This includes products ranging from systems, networking and administrative tools to business and personal productivity software and entertainment software. The U.S. market has an insatiable appetite for these things and is a very fertile ground for marketing software.
The business challenges are to find the right niche for your product, localize if for the U.S. market, and build brand. One thing I will warn you about is that the U.S. market is highly competitive, and the users are fickle and do not often give second chances. So unless there is an overwhelming reason to get your product to market quickly, I advise you to take your time and get it right the first time. In many ways, it’s like opening a new restaurant. You need the right idea and good execution. If the initial reviews are not favorable, you have a slim chance of success. But if you are good and if you are lucky, there’s a fortune to be made.

Third, there is the challenge of protecting your assets, maximizing your return, and limiting your risks as you go about the business of marketing and distributing products in the U.S. This starts with making sure that you and your U.S. representatives are educated about the various laws and regulations that govern intellectual property rights in software and the relationships between software developers and those in the chain of distribution, all the way through to the end user and those who may be affected by the product.

The U.S. actually has a relatively friendly legal environment for software distribution, and all of the legal tools exist to protect your assets, maximize your return, and limit your risks as you go about the business of marketing software products there. It is largely a matter of knowing the rules of the road, exercising proper foresight, and investing in educating your people, doing the simple things necessary to preserve your intellectual property rights, and documenting your relationships with appropriate attention to the kinds of practical terms that will protect your interests.

2. How can the seminar “Acessando o Mercado dos EUA: Aspectos Legais da Exportação e Comercialização” help them?

There are two or three times each year when the leaders of the Brazil software legal community invite information technology lawyers from the U.S. and elsewhere to come here and participate in legal conferences that focus on the legal aspects of information technology and its applications. There are wonderful events, and one of the greatest benefits of my traveling around the world to work for my clients and lecture on these topics is the opportunity to meet and make friends with so many people in so many countries with so many common interests. Not only have I made wonderful friends here in Brazil, but I can tell you from getting to know them and participating in their conferences that they have a very sophisticated understanding of the legal issues we deal with and how to help their clients navigate this territory.

What distinguishes the ITS seminar is that it is designed not only from a legal perspective, but also from a practical perspective, with an emphasis on one thing: a general overview of what you need to know in order to identify the legal issues and manage the legal risks associated with marketing your software products in the potentially most lucrative market in the world. Our goal is that the people who attend that seminar will leave with a practical sense of what they need to know and what they need to do in order to properly manage the legal aspects that enterprise.

3. What is your position on the question of open software and proprietary software and how it is related with exportation?

I’ve been working with international clients on open source issues for about five years now, and one thing I can tell you without qualification is that it is perhaps the most misunderstood legal concept in the world as far as the legal and practical aspects of software are concerned.

First, there is no a bright line between open source and proprietary software. Second, there is no such single thing as open source software – it comes in many flavors with a vast array of legal complications. Third, there is no firm relationship between open source software and standards. This could be the topic of a semester-long course in law school, but let me give you some of the highlights.

Open source does not mean the same thing as “you get the source code with the executable version of the software.” While it is customary for distributors of so-called open source software to somehow make the source code to their software available to licensees, it does not always accompany the product. Even the Free Software Foundation’s General Public License and Library General Public License, which are the most commonly use forms of open source license, do not require the distribution of source code with the software they govern. In addition, there are many proprietary software products for which the source code is also available to licensees, either with the initial distribution or separately, so that is not necessarily a distinguishing feature.

Open source does not necessarily mean that you can do whatever you want to do with the software. There are two principle branches on the open source tree – software distributed on one of those branches is freely available for use, modification and redistribution. Software distributed on the other branch, however, may have proprietary components or aspects to it and may be quite regulated in terms of the obligations and restrictions placed on the licensee. A good example is UNIX. One branch of the UNIX tree – LINUX – is true open source in the commonly understood sense. However, when AT&T gave UNIX to the world, it also permitted the development of proprietary versions, and that has resulted in things like IBM’s version of UNIX and Sun’s Solaris, both of which are proprietary. Nor does the notion of “community source” necessarily mean “free from restrictions.” For example, while the academic community offers a lot of good software without restriction, the Sun Java community source license is highly restrictive.

Open source also does not equate with “standards.” Most open source software does not comply with any standards at all, and there are as great many proprietary software products that do comply with standards set by various public or industry standards setting organizations. Microsoft’s Web services products, for example, are written to comply with the same important standards as those of any other product for the Web Services market. I suspect that is also true for many proprietary software products developed in Brazil. It is the standards that are public – the proprietary or non-proprietary character of software that may or not comply with them is wholly independent of that.

Ultimately, the issue of proprietary versus open source software is one of economics. The acquisition cost of open source software is very low, while the acquisition cost of proprietary software is relatively high. But in terms of total cost of use, the result can be just the opposite. Beyond simple tools and utilities, the care and feeding of open source software tends to require a lot of technical attention by specialized software professionals who are expert in the particular family of software. This can be very complicated, very time-consuming, and very expensive.

Because of the technical orientation of the programmers who create open source software, it tends to be not as “user friendly” as proprietary software. In addition, I personally believe there is real value in products whose commercial developers invest millions of dollars in things like ergonomics, compatibility, security, maintenance, support, and ongoing development.

There undoubtedly is room in the world for both open source and proprietary software, but I honestly believe that a lot of the pressure by some governments and some companies to move toward open source software is based largely on a lack of understanding and an emotional backlash against certain large, successful software companies. I think the independent software industry has led us into a time of change not seen by the world since the industrial revolution. The billions of dollars of investment they have made in the development of their technology never would have come about without protection of the fruits of their intellectual labors. I think we would be making a very serious mistake if we were not very careful and very thoughtful about making decisions or policies that broadly favor open source software for its own sake

4. What are in your opinion the advantages of Brazil to compete in global market of Information Technology?


We are living in an increasingly global world. Not only are we seeing the effects of worldwide globalization in a political and economic sense – we are becoming an increasingly global community in our interdependence on one another and in the markets we serve and consume. My career has taken me to many countries of the world, and I have had the privilege of lecturing and working throughout North America, South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. I have come here from Bogota, Colombia, where I spent two days lecturing in a conference jointly sponsored by that country’s Banking Association and one of its leading Universities.

The information technology market is indeed a global market. Some studies predict that global spending on information technology will surpass $3 trillion this year. Every substantial business enterprise in the world is dependent on information technology to perform its mission critical operations, to achieve the efficiencies necessary to compete, and to do things not possible without the benefit of automation. Computer hardware powers the Internet, and computer software drives the Internet. There are more than 650 million users of the Internet, and B2B e-commerce alone is expected to top $1 trillion in 2004.

What are the advantages of Brazil to compete in the global market for information technology? One is the opportunity for Brazil to take its place among the leaders of the technology world. There is a great opportunity for Brazil to become a technology provider as well as a technology consumer, creating jobs for its citizens, improving the quality of their lives, and generating a favorable balance of trade in the international technology market.

Last year I had the opportunity to spend a week working in Hyderabad, India, counseling a group of software developers who are doing work formerly performed in the United States for a U.S.-based software company. I was hesitant about traveling to India, having heard and read many of the same things that you probably have heard and read about the condition of that country and the quality of life there. But when I arrived, I saw a high level of education, a wonderful quality of life, a high rate of employment, and world class development work performed by a team of people who have helped their country earn the respect of the world by competing in the global information technology market. The opportunities are boundless. The potential advantages to Brazil are equally boundless.

5. How do you compare the current state of Internet law in Brazil and in USA?

I am not an expert on the law of Brazil, so it is not appropriate for me to compare the law of Brazil with the law of the United States. But I do know that because we are becoming an increasingly global community, and it is naive for any local or national government to believe that it can dictate the law of the Internet in isolation from the rest of the world.

The World Wide Web may be a seamless web, but we do not live in a seamless world. We live in a world with geographic and political boundaries, in which there are multiple sovereignties having political differences, economic differences, cultural differences, ethnic differences, religious differences and different rules of law.

But when we enter the world of the Internet, we enter a virtual world in which people from all of those places interact and transact in ways that need common rules and regulations and standards of conduct. As the Internet evolves from a technical haven to a wild frontier to a civilized social and business venue, it is vitally important for the laws of all participating countries to come into harmony.

The United States tends to be an early adopter of technology. As a result, the U.S. tends to be a Petrie dish of experimentation, where new modes of social and business interaction raise issues that call for new rules of law. Sometimes we get it right the first time, and sometimes it takes us a little longer. Because of that, other countries tend to watch us and learn from our successes and our mistakes. What I have seen happen over the past twenty-five years is an increasing level of international cooperation in the development of laws governing technology in general and the Internet in particular. You are very fortunate to have a group of lawyers here in Sao Paulo who are active participants in that process. We have learned from them, as I hope they have learned from us, and I look forward to continuing to work with them in an effort to shape the laws of our two countries, along with those of other countries around the world, in ways that meet the needs of all concerned and promote worldwide definition and predictability, both in the regulation of conduct and in providing a seamless fabric of international social interaction and commerce.