[FSF India] Re: WB Govt ties up with MSFT

[Rajagopal C.V]

On Sun, 5 Aug 2001, Raju Mathur wrote:

: We, the Free Software, Open Source and Electronic Freedom proponents
: in India are deeply distressed to learn about your Government's plans
: to base your complete e-governance infrastructure on a single foreign
: company's products.  The history of Microsoft has shown that it has
: very little regard for serving any objectives except its own, which
: does not augur well for the future of <state name here> in particular
: and our country in general.
: 
: We request you to kindly consider the following points before making
: this relationship permanent:
: 
: 3. Internal security
: 
: Microsoft is a company owned by American citizens, having its base of
: operations in the USA and subject to US laws.  A clear effect of this
: was evidenced in 1999 when it was discovered that some of the security
: and cryptography functions built into Microsoft's operating systems
: were subject to be used by the US National Security Agency (NSA)
: without explicit permission from either Microsoft or the user of the
: software.
: 
: This is one lone ``feature'' of Microsoft software which came to light
: due to the vigilance of a concerned individual.  However it is quite
: possible (indeed, likely) that there are other ways in which Microsoft
: products are designed and constructed to permit illegal access by US
: security agencies.  As concerned Indians, we would wish to be secure
: in the knowledge that the software handling our critical information
: about Government and individuals will not permit foreign Governments
: to spy upon, or, even worse, arbitrarily modify it without the consent
: or knowledge of our elected representatives and the Government
: machine.


The FSF-India should immediately respond to this challenge posed by the
MS in placing the WB people in a software trap. Since the FSF India has
its office in Trivandrum where a lot of Central Committee members of the
Communist Party of India are also staying, the FSF office bears can meet
these top party functionaries and explain the points raised in the Raju
Mathur's letter to them. The party leaders, I hope, will definitely
prevail upon the left government in West Bengal and persuade the latter
to desist from its latest move. Most of the politicians are totally
unaware of the threats a proprietary software can pose to the public. If
need be the FSF-India can immediately convene a press conference to
alert( or enlighten) the press on the points highlighted by Raju Mathur.

-- Rajagopal CV
____________________________________________________________________

GPG - Fingerprint: 87CF B2EE BE47 A69E 97F4  F891 96C2 90D4 F568 438A
GPG - public key http://www.river-valley.com/gpg/cvr3.gpg
____________________________________________________________________