[Fsf-friends] Re: PDF issues

Nagarjuna G. nagarjun@gnowledge.org
Sat Oct 2 16:16:32 IST 2004


On Thursday 30 Sep 2004 2:11 am, Anand Babu wrote:
> 
> But to publish them on our official GNU web site, we should to seek
> RMS's advice. 
> 

let me exemplify.  If I have recorded RMS's speach in a video and
digitized in a propreitary VCD format and started distributing it
since the video preaches free software philosophy, it may be OK.  But
if FSF does the distribution of that it is not OK.  I dont want FSF to
swallow pragmatism, it is fighting an ideological battle.  It is not
fair to drag FSF into it.

If technical solutions to encode the document in free font doesnt
exist we could have searched for other options.  our expert hackers
suggested that this problem can be solved without bothering the
author.  So we wait till they send us the files.  Meanwhile the book
is already uploaded on several other sites as it is.  Is there still a
point for Sayamindu to spend his precious time to create a font to
enable only this document?  

I appreciate the author's interest to publish the book on FSF's site.
What I dont is his impatience.  I am not those reovlutionaries who
will try to get to the end whatever be the means.  I believe that
MEANS IS THE END.  It is just an illusion that there is something
called an end other than the means and we need a means to get there.
If we change our means we are already there.  I dont mind compromising
a principle here and a principle there in my personal life, but I dont
want a public body to do this when there are other options. In the
absence of any other options we can consider, and say that to public
why we are doing what we are doing instead of being an Ostrich.

Nagarjuna







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