In fact the body of the article tells us that :
Open source software could create a more favourable working environment for Vietnamese institutes and enterprises by eliminating hefty fees needed to buy copyrighted material, said a senior official.
Then the author continue :
Open source software is designed without copyrights or intellectual property protection to be distributed and received freely.
You can continue the reading State promotes use of shareware (sic)
Either the guy who was interviewed was completely out of his mind or the journalist could not translate correctly the meaning of Hoang Le Minh. I know the guy I’ve had a meeting with him, to help out with the re-launch of the Ho Chi Minh LUG (www.saigonlug.org. Minh understand what he is talking about, although not a a Free software advocate - he prefers the term “open source” like most vietnamese, so surely didn’t say “there’s no copyright in open source”. His mistake was to forget how ignorant some journalist can be about their subject, how they simply don’t review themselves.
Anyway the very interesting part of the article is that the OpenLab was to launch a contest called :
“Open solution for the community” contest, which aims to establish three to five IT product development projects based on open source software. The projects are to be designed by students and young software designers to suit the realistic demands and needs of State offices, organisations and enterprises.
Prizes are ranging from VND30 million – VND50 million (around US$2,000-$3,000). Good money, I just hope the software created will be copylefted and not without any copyright :
The contest’s winner would then be made available for public use without copyright, the vice-director said
Sigh…
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