It all started from a brief circular posted at a web forum for Firefox
users in Korea. It was pointed out that the government's decision to
run 'MS optimized' websites could probably raise Constitutional law
issues.  While it may not always be easy to put pressure on private
website operators to switch to OS-independent, browser-independent
webpages, it was argued that there could be legal means to force public
bodies to do so.

This sparked a wildfire, as it were. The posting has been visited more
than 4,000 times in two days. Such were the accumulated, collective
grievances of Linux, Mac, Opera and Firefox users in Korea.  The
posting is at http://forums.mozilla.or.kr/viewtopic.php?t=6767

Thus a lawsuit against the government is being prepared. We shall seek
the following rulings from the court:

1.that it is unlawful for a public body to operate browser-specific or
OS-specific websites;

2.that the government's decision to endorse MS optimized websites and
web security applications is in violation of its treaty obligation
under GATT/WTO as they create trade barriers to web browsers
originating in other member countries of WTO, such as Norway; and

3.that, in view of the market condition and the prevalent web page
designing practice in Korea, the government has a duty under Art. 3(1)
of the Antitrust and Fair Trade Law and under Art. 4.1 of the Agreement
on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) to adopt and implement appropriate
measures to encourage private entities to comply with international
standards in internet engineering.

Our grounds are as follows:

A public body's decision to run IE optimized websites will effectively
deny full access to public information and public service to users who
do not use IE web browser. In our view, this is an unlawful
discrimination and infringement upon basic rights guaranteed
by the Constitution. The government's decision to support MS optimized
web engineering products (websites as well as web security
applications) is also in violation of its duty to accord
most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment to all member states of GATT/WTO
because it accords advantage to US products and denies similar
advantage to a Norwegian product (Opera web browser).

Problems posed by private websites require a different approach. Since
Korea is a signatory to TBT Agreement, the government has the duty to
ensure that international trade is not impeded by technical barriers.
While TBT Agreement does not impose a positive duty on the government
to implement any particular technical regulation or technical standard,
failure to rectify trade-restrictive market condition which had already
been created by technical barriers is not unlikely to be viewed as
violation of TBT Agreement. In addition, antitrust law of Korea imposes
a positive duty on the government to 'adopt and implement measures to
promote competition' if a market has long been dominated by
monopolistic or oligarchic providers or procurers of goods or services.
We shall argue that, in view of these statutory and treaty
requirements, central and local governments have a duty to adopt and
implement appropriate measures to reduce trade barriers to competing
web browsers. These measures will encourage banks and other private
entities to operate browser-independent and OS-independent websites.

We take the view that this is an opportune moment to bring the lawsuit
and raise these issues. Courts in Korea and in EU are currently dealing
with antitrust proceedings against MS. Also, in a recent landmark case,
the Supreme Court of Korea held that at least some of GATT/WTO treaties
have 'direct effect' in Korea so that parties to a lawsuit in a Korean
court can invoke relevant treaty provisions in support of their claim.

The 'beauty' of these proceedings is that we do not have to deal with
high-powered lawyers hired by MS.  Since we approach this matter as a
Constitutional law issue between citizens and the government, MS has no
standing.  Nor is our lawsuit an antitrust complaint against MS.  We
are merely arguing that the Minister in charge of Information
Technology and Telecommunications is neglecting his duty under the
relevant statutory and treaty provisions.  If MS should attempt to join
in as an 'interested party', that in itself will go to show that they
have in fact been the only one who has so far benefited from 'MS
optimized' government policies.

We believe that our efforts will not be in vain.  We also believe that
our approach can be used in many other countries.  We believe that the
internet should be for everyone, not just for paying clients of MS.

You are most welcome to copy this and propagate it.  But when you do
so, please put a link to our website, which is:

http://groups.google.com/group/open-web

Koreans for Open Web