[Fsf-friends] Re: [bytesforall_readers] Microsoft to share Windows code with India

[sunil]

Dear Satish,

Free Software is not Open Source Software. Access to code is not the main
issue. Free License implies Ownership and Control. It is not the recipe of
coke but the ownership of coke.

Copyrighting is the root cause of the digital divide... here is an
oversimplification so that you can understand..
------------------------------------------------------
Before the concept of Private Property:
  No Economic Divide
After the concept of Private Property:
  Land Owners
  Landless
  Economic Divide
------------------------------------------------------
Before the concept of Intellectual Property:-
  No Digital Divide
After the concept of Intellectual Property:
  Those with Knowledge
  Those without Knowledge
  Digital Divide
------------------------------------------------------

You will notice this trend in all forms of privatization:- water, phrases,
gestures, ideas, products etc.

General Public License transfers ownership of digital assets to the poor.
To use a Marxist phrase - the means of production in the knowledge economy
will be transfered to the poor. This is a 'critical' component of any
digital divide intervention.Without this type of systemic intervention all
other ICT is merely technology band-aid. 

Please see my IIM-B presentation for more details:
http://www.mahiti.org/events/Event.2002-12-16.3025/view

Thanks,

Sunil
Thanks,

Sunil

=====
Sunil Abraham [MAHITI]
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 5352003. Pager: 9624 279519
sunil@mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org