Abstract
Bob Kramer, Executive Director of the Initiative for Software Choice, will discuss how in a time when trade transparency has been fostered by governments across the globe, "preference" legislation here and abroad stands in stark relief to free trade trends. According to Kramer, if free trade is designed to foster competition and increase consumer benefit, "preference" legislation works to achieve the opposite. Not only are governments and their citizens harmed by reduced software choice, but indigenous IT developers and vendors who depend on access to internal and external markets stand to be the greatest casualties of "preference" laws or rules. Kramer will elucidate his points by briefly covering such proposals as those from California, Peru and Colombia, and contrast these proposals with those from stated US policy -- such as Bayh-Dole -- as well as other related policy pronouncements across the globe. Kramer will conclude that the best way to accord with the beneficial goals of free trade, as well as to promote indigenous IT markets -- whether at the local, state, federal or global level -- is to facilitate competition unfettered by "hardwired" preferences orbias. |
