Posted on 11/23/2006 10:43:19 PM PST by MadIvan
MAPUCHE Indians in Chile are trying to take the global software giant Microsoft to court in a legal battle which raises the question of whether anyone can ever "own" the language they speak.
The row was sparked by Microsoft's decision last month to launch its Windows software package in Mapuzugun, a Mapuche tongue spoken by around 400,000 indigenous Chileans.
At the launch in the town of Los Sauces, Microsoft said it wanted to help Mapuches to embrace the digital age and "open a window so the rest of the world can access the cultural riches of this indigenous people".
But Mapuche tribal leaders have accused the US company of violating their cultural and collective heritage by translating the software into Mapuzugun without their permission. They sent a letter to Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, accusing his company of "intellectual piracy".
"We feel like Microsoft and the Chilean education ministry have overlooked us by deciding to set up a committee [to study the issue] without our consent, our participation and without the slightest consultation," said Aucan Huilcaman, one of the Mapuche leaders behind the legal action.
Microsoft declined to comment on the case, saying they could not do so until it is legally resolved.
A judge in Santiago is due to decide in the next two weeks whether the company has a case to answer.
"If they rule against us we will go to the Supreme Court, and if they rule against us there we will take our case to a court of human rights," said Lautaro Loncon, a Mapuche activist.
The case has sparked comment on internet blogs. Many Chileans appear to feel it is absurd for the Mapuche to claim the intellectual rights to their language, and say the Indians should be pleased to see it used on the worldwide web.
follow the money, follow the power. These "tribal leaders" want to control the information that gets to their people. The Wycliff foundation understood this concept. Their policy is to take the oral language of an indiginous people, turn it into a written language and then translate the Bible. Very powerful and very radical.
English Translation: Al Sharpton
Strange, he only mentions 1) consent, 2) participation and 3) consultation, but I really suspect that 4) cash, may be what he is really looking for...
I am, by far, not a Microsoft fan.
This is one of those cases where in a good and honest legal sense the complainant does not have a very good case, and I don't believe any but a very activist court would disagree.
On non-legal, philosophical grounds however, you would think that if you say you are doing something for purely altruistic reasons, then wouldn't the people you claim to be helping be more involved in the process, than it seems Microsoft permitted.
Many a charitble project has gone badly astray because of the arrogance of those running the project.
You would think that would not be the case if the indigenous group in Chile had been brought into participation on the project, in the first place, no matter the final product.
Mapuches se oponen a Windows: Comunidades indígenas presentaron un recurso de protección para detener el empleo del idioma mapuzungun en Windows, que fue lanzado recientemente. Representantes del Consejo de Todas las Tierras y la Red Indígena Popular señalaron que no fueron considerados en la creación del programa y que Microsoft "sólo pretende lucrar" con la cultura indígena.
The average Chilean doesn't pay much attention to this type of BS, but those who do know that these whiners are just con artist using lefty blah-blah to whip up support among usually poor and vulnerable people and, of course, among comfortable lefty-wannabes in Santiago. So in doing something "nice" Microsoft gave these leeches a sick opportunity to get their names in the paper. Gates probably doesn't give a fig about the judicial outcome, except to prevent absurd precedents, but it would be a shame to let the whiners get away with this nonsense.
I hate Windows with a passion, but Microsoft is in the right on this case.
Regards, Ivan
Given their obstinacy and rather sophisticated appreciation of world public opinion and publicity I don't see this issue as going away. Especially as you will see the European and other leftists taking up their cause as just another arrow to fling at those "evil" capitalist corporations.
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