[Fsf-friends] Fwd: [linuxlingam@bhairon.com: [LIG] [draft] open letter to indian finance minister]

[Nagarjuna G.]

----- Forwarded message from LinuxLingam <linuxlingam@bhairon.com> -----

> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 15:52:28 +0530
> From: LinuxLingam <linuxlingam@bhairon.com>
> Subject: [LIG] [draft] open letter to indian finance minister
> To: ilugd@wpaa.org, linux-india-general@lists.sourceforge.net, rms@gnu.org,
>    fred@bytesforall.org, karunakar@freedomink.org, rahul@electronicsforu.com
> Reply-To: linux-india-general@lists.sourceforge.net
> X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.3.1]
> 
> [first draft: please submit your suggestions, changes. once a final draft is 
> ready, will post it so those interested may sign or contribute their name to 
> it. will then forward this to the indian finance minister and others in the 
> government.]
> 
> [cross-posted, 
> and further cross-post, especially to other mailing lists, if required]
> 
> ***
> 
> Dear Sir,
> 
> Re: Levy Excise Tax on All Commercial Software Sold in India.
> 
> 
> We, the undersigned, propose the Indian Government levy excise tax on all 
> commercial software sold in India. Reasons:
> 
> 1) Commercial software (C.S) is a big cash drain for both the Indian 
> government and Indian corporates.
> 
> 2) Almost all commercial software are non-free. This means, they do not give 
> the end users the freedom i) to use the software for any purpose ii) to study 
> the source code of the software iii) to make changes and improvements to the 
> source code iv) to legally share copies of the software with their neighbours 
> and colleagues. v) to pass on such freedom to those who further receive the 
> software.
> 
> 3) these freedoms are important for a developing, poor, country like India, 
> where every citizen, organization, and state, dreams of harnessing the 
> opportunities offered by IT.
> 
> 4) these freedoms also significantly curtail strong anti-competitive 
> behaviour in the software industry.
> 
> 5) countries like China are moving away from non-free software to 
> freedom-based software. India has no such significant, clearly-defined 
> initiative in place for adopting freedom based software.
> 
> 6) in the lack of such a clear initiative, commercial software vendors raise 
> the stakes for both their competitors and for freedom based software. this 
> further kills innovation in the industry.
> 
> 7) a large and significant percentage of commercial software is usually sold 
> as bundled, OEM software. end-users find they are *forced* to use such 
> software, since their requests to buy machines with such software uninstalled 
> is usually turned down.
> 
> 8) indian customers usually find their *only* option is to buy the computer 
> with the bundled software, then carefully disagree the end user license 
> agreement (eula) of the bundled software preferably in front of witnesses, 
> then contact the OEM software vendor independently and press for a refund. 
> this is clearly anti-competitive. and the computer is perceived in cost as 
> (hardware+OEM software as One).
> 
> 9) Commercial software companies are usually quite rich. Not taxing them 
> allows them to hoard their wealth even more and give them more implicit power 
> to quash their competition in commercial software and in freedom-based 
> software.
> 
> 10) by taxing them, the indian government will immediately have more powers 
> to i) accelerate the adoption of freedom based software. 
> ii) fund the development of much-needed indigenous solutions in IT for india 
> using freedom-based software (indian language technologies, education 
> projects, free and freedom-based education software, more secure and 
> transparant software for indian defense industries, lower IT infrastructure 
> costs for indian government and businesses, etc.)
> 
> 11) by taxing commercial software and funding several projects in india on 
> freedom-based software, the indian government also creates a quantum leap in 
> the number of jobs and opportunities available to the indian developer 
> community and IT industry, thus creating and sharing more wealth.
> 
> 12) the adoption of free and freedom-based software allows indian corporates 
> to save considerable sums of money towards commercial non-free software, 
> where the Return on Investment is loudly questioned. this money can then be 
> used for further job-creating opportunities such as expansion of new units of 
> industrial manufacturing, factories, etc. shareholders of indian companies 
> will also benefit from stronger dividends due to stronger profit margins due 
> to the adoption of free and freedom-based software.
> 
> 13) the already financially-starved education sector in India will gain, 
> since the large allocation of funds for software in education can be used 
> more productively, even for opening more schools instead.
> 
> 14) finally, as a statement of leadership and values, india must adopt 
> freedom-based software that is being proposed to the UNICEF to be declared as 
> a world-culture heritage.
> 
> We hope the Indian government sincerely considers these suggestions. For more 
> information on what is freedom-based software, please check out www.gnu.org.
> 
> Bizarre as it sounds, when it comes to software: 
> Give us Freedom, or Give Us Taxes.
> 
> 
> Your Sincerely,
> 
> <signatures...>
> 
> 
> 
> 
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