Brazil: “Hey, Bill! Leave Our LANs Alone!”

Agência Carta Maior (Brazil) reports:

Casas de acesso público pago à internet já se tornaram os maiores empreendimentos de inclusão digital nas periferias brasileiras. No entanto, ofensiva dos donos dos códigos e de softwares proprietários ameaça esse negócio em expansão ainda informal. Segundo especialista, softwares livres são alternativa.

Paid internet access centers have already become the most significant expression of digital inclusion in poor Brazilian communities. But an offensive by the owners of proprietary code and software threatens an expanding business sector that is still primarily informal. According to an expert, open-source software provides a way out.

On Brazilian LAN houses as a cultural and political phenomenon, see also this analysis by Vi o Mundo, a Web column on Globo’s G1 news portal.

Luis Carlos Azenha makes the case that the inexpensive Internet access centers are at the forefront of the “democratization of the media” and the rise of a new, politically active lower-middle class.

My own last look at the (often fuzzy) numbers suggests that Microsoft’s digital inclusion efforts in Brazil since 2000 have yielded minimal results, while the LAN house model — where access can be had for as little as R$1 per hour, or less — accounts for as much as one-third of all Internet usage.

Disclosure: Neuza and I are frequent LAN house users, especially during our travels.

The CM report is by Carlos Gustavo, er, Yoda.

Sigo rumo à terceira zona residencial de Praia Grande, o lado de lá da pista para aqueles que desfrutam os jardins da orla dessa cidade do litoral paulista. O objetivo é encontrar um velho amigo, Ramiro, velho companheiro de campanhas passadas. Há mais de ano que não o vejo, e lembrei-me de ter dito ter aberto uma dessas casas de acesso à internet, uma lan house, na Vila do Sapo, área periférica de Praia Grande.

I am on my way to the third residential zone in Praia Grande, on the other side of the highway from the beachside gardens in this São Paulo seaside city. My objective is to meet an old friend, Ramiro, an old comrade from past campaigns. I have not seen him for more than a year, and I remember him telling me that he has opened up one of those Internet centers, a “LAN house,” in the Vila do Sapo, on the periphery of Praia Grande.

Fato é que a lojinha de Ramiro cresceu. O que começou com três computadores usados já conta com 13 máquinas trabalhando em rede. Entre as histórias de maravilhas e tristezas de seu negócio, ele conta que o momento de maior dificuldade foi quando começou a comprar mais computadores e, por lá, apareceram dois funcionários da Microsoft. O aviso foi claro: ou ele comprava as licenças de uso dos softwares que ele havia adquirido como cópias não autorizadas ou a empresa, proprietária dos direitos de cópia dos softwares, entraria com uma ação contra o micro e informal empresário.

The fact is that Ramiro’s little storefront has grown. What began with three used computers now has 13 machines, networked together. Among the stories of triumph and heartbreak that Ramiro has to tell about his business, he says that the most difficult moment was when he began to buy more computers and two Microsoft employees came around. The warning was clear: Either he bought licenses for the unauthorized copies of software he was using or the company, which owned the copyright to the software, would sue the informal small business.

O fenômeno comercial e de inclusão digital proporcionado pela disseminada presença de lan houses nas regiões periféricas brasileiras não é diferente desse pequeno caso de Praia Grande. No Rio de Janeiro, por exemplo, já passam de 50 casas de internet na Rocinha e 20 na Cidade de Deus. Esses centros de acesso público pago à rede já são considerados o principal meio de uso das classes C, D e E. Apenas os internautas das classes D e E são responsáveis por quase 50% dos acessos, conforme pesquisa do Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil (leia mais).

The commercial and digital inclusion phenomenon provided by the widespread presence of LAN houses in poor communities is typified by this tiny case in Praia Grande. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, there are already more than 50 LAN houses in the Rocinha shantytown and 20 in the Cidade de Deus. These paid public Internet access points are considered the principle mode of Internet usage for classes C, D and E. Internet uses from classes D and E along are responsible for nearly 50% of usage, according to a survey by the CGI, the Brazilian internet governance body.

Segundo Ronaldo Lemos, diretor do Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade da FGV-RIO, o fenômeno demonstra que esses espaços, onde é cobrado de R$ 0,50 a R$ 2,00 por hora de uso, mostram ser mais eficientes do que os telecentros. “Não que os telecentros sejam ruins. Pelos contrário, são essenciais. Mas são poucos e é caro mantê-los. Assim, as lan houses tornam-se uma grande alternativa nos lugares mais isolados e carentes”, aponta.

According to Ronaldo Lemos, director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, the phenomenon shows that these spaces, which charge users between R$0.50 and R$2.00 an hour, are more efficient than telecenters. “Not that the telecenters are bad. On the contrary, they are essential. But they are few in number and it is expensive to maintain them. So LAN houses have become a great alternative in the most isolated and impoverished places,” he points out.

The telecenters are few in number, no one uses them, and are expensive to maintain. But they are “essential.” These people never miss a chance to spout nonsense, do they?

Lemos is also the worldwide chairman of the iCommons, the International Creative Commons. See ‘Ronaldo Lemos is iCommons’ New Chairman’ and Brazilian Indies Protest Exclusion, CC-M$FT Partnership. He is a sort of a Brazilian John Palfrey. As I wrote at the time, of Lemos’s appointment to replace Joi Ito:

What better example of “embrace, extend, extinuish” than to get your undeclared lobbyist in charge of the “knowledge wants to be free” patrol?

These people never fully disclose their institutional relationships when talking to the press, do they?

Os caça-mukifos

What the hell is a caça-mukifos? A caça-níquel is a “one-armed bandit” or “nickel-hunter” — an electronic gambling machine.

O que aconteceu quando os donos do Windows, Word, MSN e Cia. descobriram o pequeno negócio em expansão de Ramiro em Praia Grande não se diferencia de toda a realidade das lan houses em todo o país. “As grandes empresas de software agem com seus agentes locais e estão fechando esses legítimos atores de inclusão digital”, destaca Lemos.

What happened when the owners of Windows, Word, MSN et al. discovered Ramiro’s growing business in Praia Grande is happening at LAN houses all over Brazil. “The big software companies work with their local agents to close these legitimate agents of digital inclusion,” Lemos says.

Victor Procópio, 27 anos, narra na comunidade da Associação Brasileira de Lan House (ABLH), no orkut, toda sua saga contra o que ele chama de mukifo (sic): “Denunciei e derrubei nove ‘mukifos’ em menos de um mês. Aqui na minha região (Belo Horizonte) tem uma portaria que regulariza a freqüência de menores em lan houses. Para adquirir um alvará judicial é necessário planta de incêndio, vistoria do corpo de bombeiros e inscrição estadual com visto da Receita Estadual. Como eu consegui tudo, fui lá no ministério público e denunciei todos para a promotoria. Disse que se não fosse tomada nenhuma atitude por parte dos órgãos, eu iria levar o caso até a corregedoria. Resultado: em menos de um mês, nove ‘mukifos’ fechados e aumento no meu rendimento”.

Victor Procópio, 27, tells the Orkut community of the Brazilian LAN House Association the entire saga of his fight against what he calls “mukifos”: “I denounced and shut down 9 “mukifos” in less than a month. Here in my area (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais) there’s a court order that controls the presence of minors in LAN houses. To get a judicial exemption you have to have a fire plan, a fire department inspection and a state registration with a permit from the tax authority. Since I had managed to get all of those things, I went to the public advocate and complained to the prosecutor’s office. I said that if the bureaucracy had not taken an attitude, I was going to take the case all the way to the ombudsman. Result In less than a month, 9 “mukifos” closed down and an increase in my revenues.”

O jovem empresário ainda clama: “Denuncie! ‘Mukifos’ não pagam impostos, aluguel, não são registrados, não têm gastos com contador, com advogado e muitas vezes nem têm gatos de energia. (…) Não aceite isso! (…) Aqui na minha horta, ‘mukifo’ roda pior que azeitona na boca de banguelo”.

The young businessman explains: “Denounce them! Mukifos don’t pay taxes, rent, are not registered, don’t have to pay an accountant or lawyer, and often get their electricity from “yanking a cat” (illegal hookup). … Don’t take it! Here in my backyard, a “mukifo” finds itself on a slope slippier than olive oil in the mouth of a toothless man.

Conforme a descrição da comunidade da ABLH no orkut (leia aqui), “a Associação Brasileira de Lan House, é uma entidade não governamental sem fins lucrativos, que deseja organizar, normalizar, combater o “dumping” que está destruindo nossa classe em todo Brasil e lutar a favor dos empresários sérios deste setor que está perdendo o prestígio perante a sociedade e o governo. Lutamos pelo reconhecimento de nossa atividade a nível federal e a normalização correta perante a lei, evitando que sejam criadas as leis locais”.

According to the description on its Orkut page, “the ABLH is a nonprofit NGO dedicated to organizing, regulating, and combating the “dumping” that is destroying our business all over Brazil, and to fight in favor of serious business owners whose image is suffering with the public and the government. We fight for recognition of our business at the federal level and the proper regulation under the law, avoiding the creation of local laws.”

A pauta do software livre como alternativa circunda os tópicos de conversação, mas o maior problema enfrentado ainda é a incompatibilidade do GNU/LINUX com os jogos de mais sucesso. O gaúcho Carlos Henrique Ggüntzel, um dos organizadores da ABLH, diz em um desses debates abertos que “o que realmente existe é uma falta de informação, pois podemos jogar praticamente todos os jogos no Linux e suas distribuições”.

The topic of free software as an alternative runs through a lot of the conversation, but the biggest problem is still the incompatibility of GNU/LINUX with the most popular games. Carlos Henrique Ggüntzel [sic?], an ABLH organizer, says in one of these open forums that “what really exists is a lack of information, because we can play practically all the games on Linux and its various distros.”

Wine is definitely coming along, but when I tried to install JOOST recently, it was not an optimal experience.

Na página eletrônica sobre inclusão digital do governo federal (visite aqui), raras são as referências de pesquisas sobre lan houses, e não existe nenhum programa específico para esse meio de inclusão. Enquanto isso, o Ministério da Cultura já tem programa de incentivo para desenvolvimento de jogos abertos (conheça aqui), que podem vir a ser alternativos aos jogos quase sempre ilegais instalados nessas casas.

On the federal goverment’s “digital inclusion” Web page, there are few references to studies of LAN houses, and there is no specific program for this method of inclusion. In the meantime, the Ministry of Culture already has a program for the development of open games, which might become alternatives to the almost invariably illegal games installed in LAN houses.

O Sebrae ainda desenvolve algum pensamento e incentiva o empreendedorismo das lan houses. No entanto, as informações são direcionadas a uma empresa de consultoria que vende um guia de “como montar sua lan house” que usa softwares de gerenciamento de código fechado. Via Sebrae, ainda é possível garantir financiamento em bancos estatais para iniciar um negócio.

SEBRAE is also developing some thinking on this and encouraging the entrepreneurship of the LAN houses. Still, their efforts are directed toward a consulting firm that sells a guide on “how to set up LAN house” using proprietary software. Through SEBRAE, it is not yet possible to get financing from state banks to start up a business.

“Essa boa notícia que se espalha pelo Brasil é um grande fenômeno de empreendedorismo. E o governo federal não faz nada com isso. Ao menos, deixem as lan houses em paz, porque são elas que estão fazendo uma verdadeira inclusão digital no país”, conclui Lemos.

“This good news that is spreading throughout Brazil is a great feat of entrepreneurialism. And the federal government has nothing to do with it. At least let it leave the LAN houses in peace, because they are doing the real digital inclusion in Brazil,” Lemos concludes.

Bullshit.

If our neighborhood is any indication, for example, the greatest factor in getting Brazilians online affordably is still far and away Sino-Paraguayan pirated Windows software.

Come over to my house sometime with a shopping list of Windows software you want to have.

I will hook you up in a single afternoon. No sweat.

Not that I do that sort of thing myself, mind you. I have not used Windows for, hmmm, three, four years now.

And it is awfully hard to blame these young guys freelancing as IT consultants based on pirated software. I keep trying to give them Ubuntu Live CDs, but you know what? Those guys are Bill Gates’ biggest fans. If it weren’t for the pirate software underground, Bill might not have any friends he wasnt’t paying to be his friends, I think.

The thing is that if it weren’t for those guys, Windows simply would not have the installed base that it has. Because no one could afford to run it, or figure out how to keep it running (what with all the critical security patches that come out almost every single week and all).

All the honest Windows users I know are still running Windows 97, in fact. Which is, of course, no longer supported. On 133-KHz machines. I am not exaggerating. I can introduce you to maybe 10 people right off the top of my head. It’s just sad.

The Brazilian federal government meanwhile, has, for example, broken the Wintel monopoly — which Lemos shills for — and used incentives to shape new market for cheap computers that is expected to outsell television sets this year in Brazil.

This is not chopped liver.

See

• The Brazilian Digital Inclusion Wars: Monopoly is Not a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Brazil: Cheap PCs Part of Economic Stimulus
• Brazil: Filling Up the “Cup Mainly Empty” Internet Market
• Brazil: Cheap Computer News Update