● 09.08.11

●● Cablegate: Microsoft deal in Bosnia “marks a huge success for the U.S. Embassy”

Posted in Cablegate, Europe, Microsoft at 5:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Another fine example of the US diplomats (whom the public pays for) simply acting as de facto lobbyists of corporations

THE following Cablegate cable shows us what we already knew — that the US embassy is performing a role broader than it’s supposed to.

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VZCZCXRO9784

RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN

RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG

DE RUEHVJ #1879 3531507

ZNR UUUUU ZZH

R 181507Z DEC 08

FM AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9419

INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 0085

RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC

RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC

RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC

UNCLAS SARAJEVO 001879

SIPDIS

COMMERCE FOR 4232/ITA/MAC/EUR (BURGESS AND SAVICH)

DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USTR (MORROW, YANG)

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE, EEB/IPE, EUR/PPD (HANNAN),

EUR/PPD-PA,IIP/S

TREASURY FOR LINDQUIST

COMMERCE PLEASE PASS TO MCCAFFREY AND SMITH AT USPTO

JUSTICE FOR CARL ALEXANDRE

MOSCOW FOR REGIONAL IPR ATTACHE

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: ECIN, KIPR, BK

SUBJECT: BOSNIA: MICROSOFT AND PM SPIRIC SIGN STRATEGIC

PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

REF: SARAJEVO 1351

1. On December 18, the BiH Council of Ministers and Microsoft

finally signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement for access

to legal Microsoft applications for all state-level

government ministries. Prime Minister Nikola Spiric signed

the agreement on behalf of the BiH Government. The agreement

obligates the BiH Government to use licensed software, but is

only the first step in strengthening the state government's

intellectual property regime. Microsoft will now begin

negotiations with BiH to purchase licenses for the software

applications under the state's purview. This marks a huge

success for the U.S. Embassy, which has been working with

state-level officials for three years to push for action to

ban pirated and unlicensed software from ministry offices.

(Note: Federation and RS-entity governments signed separate

strategic partnership agreements with Microsoft in 2006. End

note.)

ENGLISH

Smacks of imperialism. Laws are relative and Bosnia would be better off using Free software it can review and modify, not secret code that it rents from another nation. █

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