[Fsf-friends] Re: user group assn.

Ramanraj K ramanraj@md4.vsnl.net.in
Wed Oct 20 06:28:13 IST 2004


Sandip Bhattacharya wrote:
 >
 > We need a watchdog in India to see the the freedom of software is
 > maintained. Since the software is owned by the community, there is right
 > now no formal body to watch for the software.

In democracies, it is "numbers" that matter. It is the pleasure of the
majority that counts.  Users will out number the others any day.  In our
community, the developers, users and others can easily work together
without much conflict.  Having an association of free software users
could be very effective in safeguarding our rights and interests, but we
need to have consenus among the various lugs, user groups and others
here.  Such an assn. could work on issues the way EFF does, along with
promoting use of free software in a big way by co-ordinating events.

 > The other point of view might be that we concentrate on people "giving"
 > only, rather than people "taking" and not "giving" back.

This is in fact a serious issue which needs constant attention and
action.  It is very, very easy to take free software, make cosmetic
changes, and redistribute binaries as non-free software, in plain
violation of the GPL or other free licenses.  A mechanism to deal with
such violations in a routine way by assns. or other orgs. should help.

But, as Arky points out, eduction about the philosophy should make such
coercive legal action redundant.   People could take and give with joy
and celebration, and that alone goes well with the philosophy of love
and sharing that is at the heart of our community.







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