Gates seeking samba with Brazil's president?

CNET News.com: "Microsoft is lobbying Brazil's government to agree to a meeting between the company's chairman, Bill Gates, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the World Economic Forum next week, a Brazilian official said. The country has taken prominent role in the so-called free software movement, an effort that champions free computer operating systems like Linux as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows program.

Microsoft's new tactic of conciliation instead of confrontation reflects the country's growing status among the digital elite. It is also a recognition that pushing for open-source software is part of a larger set of policies first implemented by Lula's predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Worried about growing HIV infection rates in the late 1990s and the cost of treating them, Cardoso's administration threatened to break patents on anti-AIDS drugs unless multinational drug companies cut prices. The strategy worked. Wired magazine, the bible for technology fans, published a lengthy article in November championing Brazil's growing role in the free-software movement. "