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

Raju Mathur fsf-india@gnu.org.in
Thu, 9 Aug 2001 11:36:36 +0530 (IST)


Hi Khuzaima,

You are welcome to do any or all of the following:

- Ignore my original posting and all follow-ups.

- Shut down FSF-I

- Use the letter as it is

- Use the letter after modification under the terms of the GNU
Documentation License

- Remove or add any terms you want to the letter

Please do remember, however:

- You, the FSF-I, FSF and GNU are not the only proponents of
Electronic Freedom in the world.  Please do not try to take that
mantle upon yourselves or try to shoulder that burden solo -- your
shoulders will not take it.

- My objective in writing the letter was to stop the alliance of MS
with State Governments.  If your objective is different, please
write/advocate whatever you please.  If you feel that the original
objective can be met with a different approach, please feel free to go
ahead with that.  Do not confuse issues -- other people (e.g. MS
executives) will be glad enough to do that for you for free.

- I am not sending the letter to anyone: other people are.  I feel I
have done my bit with drafting it and releasing it.  If you have
further issues please take them up with the people who're redrafting
and sending the letter.

- *Really mad* If I can help stop the WB and other State Governments
from tying up with MS for e-governance, I don't give a sh*t whether
RMS, LT, Tom Christiansen or God Himself comes to inaugurate the
FSF-I.  That may have been the most important event in the lives of
many people, but this is more important to me.

Regards,

-- Raju

>>>>> "Khuzaima" == Khuzaima A Lakdawala <klak@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in> writes:

    Khuzaima> Dear Raju, Raju Mathur <raju@linux-delhi.org> writes:

    >> While I agree that freedom is the most important facet of Free
    >> Software, I deliberately omitted mentioning it in the letter.

    Khuzaima> What kind of a compromise is this? We might as well shut
    Khuzaima> down FSF-I then. If we are *deliberately* not going to
    Khuzaima> talk about freedom, FSF-I loses it reason to exist. It
    Khuzaima> just becomes an Open Source body. RMS wouldn't even have
    Khuzaima> agreed to come here for its inauguration if he knew that
    Khuzaima> we were going to *deliberately* omit mentioning freedom
    Khuzaima> in our arguments.

    >> The idea was to create a document which would present hard
    >> facts which cannot be debated away.

    Khuzaima> How can our fundamental rights be debated away? It makes
    Khuzaima> no sense!

    Khuzaima> Pappu definitely hit the bull's eye when he said:

    Khuzaima>         On the other hand, I feel that if we don't speak
    Khuzaima> of freedom or hide it behind the other facts, the whole
    Khuzaima> exercise becomes meaningless.

    Khuzaima> If you must go ahead with the letter as it is,
    Khuzaima> *deliberately* leaving out "the most important facet of
    Khuzaima> Free Software", please do, but please be kind enough to
    Khuzaima> remove the terms Free Software and Electronic Freedom
    Khuzaima> from its opening line to read:

    Khuzaima>         We, the Open Source proponents in India...

    Khuzaima> It's a pity, because the letter states and explains many
    Khuzaima> of the *other* benefits of Free Software so nicely and
    Khuzaima> lucidly. If only it did not shy away from stating the
    Khuzaima> *main point* of Free Software, it would have made a
    Khuzaima> powerful letter.

    Khuzaima> Best regards, Khuzaima

-- 
Raju Mathur          raju@kandalaya.org           http://kandalaya.org/