[Fsf-friends] The game may well be over...

Amol Hatwar amol@[EMAIL-PROTECTED]
Fri Mar 23 16:40:07 IST 2007


Nagarjuna G. wrote:
> CK Raju, Thrissur wrote:
>> On 3/14/07, Ajay Pal Singh Atwal <ajaypal at bbsbec.org> wrote:
>>
>>> But I wont. Bravo ECI and the people behind it. Keep the good work on.
>>
>>
>> But before I leave the scene, let me record some more facts.
>>
>> 1. NDA govt  implements privatisation (initiated by Congress regime 
>> in 90s)
>> of Navaratna  VSNL - UPA/Left are in opposition
>> 2. VSNL gets a new private MD in the form of Ratan Tata 2002-2005.
>> 3. Ratan Tata is a governing member of board of trustee in RAND - 
>> research
>> and analysis think tank for US Armed Forces.
>> 4. Ratan Tata is also on programme board of Bill Gates and Melida Gates
>> Foundation.
>> 5. Reliance, which owns FLAG, is already a close partner of Microsoft.
>> 6. Microsoft thus gains strategic and vantage points at VSNL and other
>> important landing stations of undersea bandwidth cables.
>> 7. US had by now announced successful Cyber warfare NSPD 16 through a
>> Presidential Directive, whereby any remote digital networks could be
>> crippled.
>> 8. Somewhere in between in a US court, Microsoft informs that it cannot
>> continue revealing further information to the judge, as the 
>> information is
>> closely related to US national security.
>>
>> That was all what I could gather. So the continent is now prone to cyber
>> attack. And look who's celebrating - with Ratan Tata. If Tagore were 
>> alive
>> now, he would have slapped someone in W Bengal, at least I am sure.
>>
>>
>> That leaves me to announce my retirement from FSF list. Bye.
>
> all of us aware of the nexus between corporates and Govt.  the point 
> is to break it, increase awareness about it, and continue fighting. 
> FSFIndia's message in Hyderabad free software convention was this.
>
Another example, in the hey-days of dial-up, I could use the same phone 
connection to dial to different ISPs. Come DSL and what happened? I can 
get DSL from Airtel only if I have an Airtel line. Ditto for BSNL... 
Does coupling the copper that comes to my home with the ISP make sense?

AFAIK, what CKR's research seems to be a good conspiracy theory. The 
Internet itself was a US DARPA initiative, a lot of it still governed by 
the US Agencies (ICANN/IANA)... Even if UN takes over, the way elections 
in the UN happen will want to make you lose heart again. Now how do we 
solve that?

Also, the nexus and nexus making initiatives will only continue... The 
only way to break it, is to turn things upside-down by giving power to 
the masses the way GPL did it.
> please don't loose heart, we must patiently and relentlessly do this 
> fight for freedom.
>
> Sometimes, the facts of the kind that you mentioned may not make much 
> sense, though they might indicate at times how system's work.  Take 
> for e.g., FSF India's chairperson is an employee of TIFR, which has 
> Ratan Tata as a board member.  Does this make FSF India a ally of 
> Ratan Tata in any way.  FSF has a published and clear manifesto.  
> Whoever is against software freedom, we must make people aware of this.
> Please also suggest, if there are any other actions that FSF India 
> should take.
>
We have Free Software, what about Free Hardware (Simputer ishtyle) or 
even a Free Network. Now thats thinking too far isn't it :o)

Amol Hatwar



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