Gilberto Gil - Musical Legand, Minister of Culture, Creativity Champion

Gilbert Gil is a Grammy-Award winning Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter. Gil is also the current Minister of Culture of Brazil. Gil is best known for his late 1960s tropicalismo recordings.

He recently commented on how the Internet is affecting music and creativity. "I think we are moving rapidly toward the obsolescence and eventual disappearance of a single traditional model and its replacement by others that are hybrids," Gil said in a February interview at his home here in northeast Brazil, one day before the start of Carnival. "My personal view is that digital culture brings with it a new idea of intellectual property, and that this new culture of sharing can and should inform government policies."

Gil announced his intention to place some of his music on the web for free downloads when his label, Warner Brothers, told him that he couldn't do it. He is a signatory to the Royal Society of the Arts Adelphi Charter of Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property, which calls on government to restrain corporations from further locking down their ownership of ideas. The campaign encompasses everything from the music industry's myopia over downloading to the recent efforts of one agribusiness firm to patent basmati rice, then charge the Indian farmers for the privilege of growing it.

In early 2008 The government of Brazil announced plans to establish cultural centers in 200 Brazilian cities.

Read the profile, "Minister of Counterculture."