Only some of the running commentary on PFF's South American expedition is on this blog -- for more, go to the Digital Americas section.

posted by James DeLong @ 3:53 PM | Digital Americas

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A day of listening to experts from the Brazilian software industry left me with an impression of an industry that is full of creativity, determination and ambition, and if it breaks out of its artificial restraints it will quickly become a dominant software exporter. This doesn't seem to be hyperbole - both data and powerful anecdotes were presented here supporting that. There also is great resentment that the country has been passed by developing nations like China and India, which are gaining market share that Brazilians feel they should have. I kept picturing Brazil as a tiger chained - I don’t know what would be the appropriate animal metaphor for Brazil (a parrot isn’t very intimidating and a python could slither out of any chain). Perhaps a tiger came to mind because it’s so often associated with China and India.

This self-image of Brazilians both in government and industry is a significant contrast from what is presented by some in the Free Culture Movement in the US.

Continue reading An Industry in Chains . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:53 AM | Digital Americas , Free Culture Movement , Software

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Piracy remains high in Brazil but is declining, said Manoel Antonio dos Santos, legal director of the Brazilian Software Companies Association, at our Digital Americas Summit in Sao Paulo. More than 90% of software was pirated in 1988, in 2004 it was 64%, a 27% decline, he said. Still, with 2/3 of software pirated, that adds costs to the legitimate software sold, because fixed costs are, well, fixed. Without so much piracy, he said, the Brazilian software industry could be employing numerous Brazilians and contributing far more to the national economy.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:11 AM | Digital Americas

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The Digital Americas Summit in Sao Paulo was indeed a success, as Tom Lenard noted. Among the hot topics debated was open source software, and the Brazilian government's stance on supporting and/or adopting it.

Continue reading Brazil and Open Source . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:00 AM | Digital Americas , International , Software

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Sao Paulo is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, with a metropolitan area population of some 17 million.

The hotel gave me a map with legends in English and Japanese. It seems that Sao Paulo is also the largest Japanese city in the world outside of Japan, says the staff. Our language skills were not sufficiently interoperable for me to figure out if this means that there is large-scale trade between Japan and Sao Paulo.

posted by James DeLong @ 9:26 AM | Digital Americas

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The PFF roadshow moves on to Sao Paulo for a conference tomorrow on Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital World -- The Importance for Brazilian Development. Our co-sponsor is ABPI (Brazilian Intellectual Property Association).

posted by James DeLong @ 9:18 AM | Digital Americas

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Dr. Martin Krause, Professor of Economics and Dean of ESEADE Business School in Buenos Aires, has an article in TCS Daily on "Populism and Institutional Ruin," dealing with government in South America.

Populism is the absence of constraints, of rules of conduct in the public arena which is the other side of corruption. Populist leaders built their own constituencies, their own political structures, and their own mafias at the same time.

Continue reading South America & Populism . . .

posted by James DeLong @ 9:03 AM | Digital Americas

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Not only has Argentina banned beef exports, the government has apparently also imposed price controls on oil, thus eliminating it as a (small) but significant export market and putting domestic production on decline. The same is true of natural gas production because price controls caused domestic consumption to increase while supply plummeted. With a bit of detachment that could befit a French government economics minister, the NYT noted: "Orthodox free-market economists regard price controls with distaste." Indeed, they do, though I doubt unorthodox free market economists think much of price controls either. And even orthodox unfree-market economists could likely agree that it is axiomatic that if you control price below its equilibrium level, then demand will increase and supply will dwindle.

Continue reading Beef, Gas and IP . . .

posted by Ray Gifford @ 8:01 AM | Digital Americas

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Here is the introduction to my Buenos Aires talk:

OPEN STANDARDS AND OPEN SOURCE

My thoughts today are based on two quite recent experiences.

The first occurred two weeks ago in Washington, when I had the privilege of meeting the renowned Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto. As I am sure you know, he is the author of The Mystery of Capital, and a leading proponent of the thesis that a lack of property rights is a major deficiency in the less developed nations.

Continue reading Argentina: Property Rights as Tools of Cooperation . . .

posted by James DeLong @ 7:07 AM | Digital Americas

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We preached our gospel of property rights and markets in Buenos Aires on Friday. Our audience was young, mostly law students or young lawyers, and reasonably divided between the sexes – probably a third women.

They listened intently, and asked good questions. There was little of the anti-IP cant that one might get from a comparable U.S. audience.

This was all good, because such an audience is the future of Argentina, and it does not have a clear or easy path to follow.

Continue reading Argentina . . .

posted by James DeLong @ 6:56 AM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 3:43 PM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 3:50 PM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 1:01 PM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:01 AM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 10:33 AM | Digital Americas

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posted by Ray Gifford @ 8:48 AM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 8:35 AM | Digital Americas

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:01 AM | Digital Americas

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