Please find the original text below, submitted in Portuguese.

In Brazil, one name is synonymous with the digital culture movement: singer and songwriter Gilberto Gil. He has been referred to as a cyber-activist, warrior for free software and a “minister of hacking”—and he is considered the “ambassador” of this cause.

Gil has made a career out of challenging conventional wisdom and showing sufficient interest in the role that the Internet is playing in transforming the world. At a recent festival in São Paulo called youPIX, the singer, who turns 70 next year, was keen to stress the importance of how the Internet has challenged the status quo in politics, business and society.

It turns out Gil practices what he preaches. In June of this year, he provided all his discography to mobile platforms like Apple and Android. Gil is one of the great enthusiasts of the copyleft—a concept advocating openness and transparency by opposing the copyrighting of artistic works.

Known worldwide for his tropicalista songs—referring to the rhythm he invented with the Bahian Caetano Veloso—Gil was one of the two first musicians in Brazil to talk about the importance of digital culture. Even in the 1960s, he was a renegade in releasing a song called “Electronic Brain” which talked about robotics. By the 1990s, he unveiled “Through the Internet,” a song that predicted the potential unifying power of the Internet. The song became an anthem of sorts for Brazilian cyber-activists. 

Marina Silva, a former environment minister who left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government in 2008, announced today that she is leaving the President’s Workers' Party (PT) and “in talks with the Green Party in this period of transition" —a move toward what may be a possible presidential run in next year’s election. According to a Datafolha poll released last weekend, a Silva candidacy (3 percent support) would trail that of the current Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff (37 percent—PT) and São Paulo Governor José Serra (16 percent—Brazilian Social Democracy Party).

Adding to the speculation, the former Brazilian culture minister and renowned artist Gilberto Gil said that “the possibility exists” that he would join Marina Silva as her vice-presidential candidate if she invited him, as reported by Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo. “She wants to talk about her candidacy, about the party, about the Green Party” he said. “I haven’t received an invitation yet, but if she does extend an invitation, I prefer to tell her directly.”

Marina left her post in Lula’s government over disagreements with Lula’s environment agenda, while Gil, winner of seven Grammy awards, left in 2008 to dedicate himself to his music.