[Fsf-india] IT Policy Govt of Kerala

[Rajkumar S.]

On 6 Dec 2001, Khuzaima A. Lakdawala wrote:

> With all due respect to the people involved in the
> behind-the-scenes advocacy efforts, it seems that the Government
> still doesn't "get it!"

Advocacy is an ongoing process. You cannot expect a bunch of
bureaucrats and politician to understand all about freedom in a time
span of 6 months or so. At least they know that their is some thing
called "Free Software" in the world.

> For them it is still only a question of "total cost of ownership"

It is quite natural for a govt to be concerned about the total cost of
ownership.

>         The Government shall provide orientation programs to its law
>         enforcement agencies to understand the intricacies of the laws
>         under the IT Act 2000 to curb software piracy.
>
> Excellent! Read that as "The Government shall spend tax-payers
> money to increase the profits of proprietary software companies."

What is wrong with it? If some things are licensed as proprietary it
is *govt's* duty to protect it. Remember it is the same laws that
protects against GPL violations also. We are against proprietary
software, but that do not mean that we should encourage breaking law. If
some thing is licensed as proprietary we should respect the licensing
and try to *replace* it with free software.

and btw, the whole purpose of the policy is to increase the profits of
software companies in Kerala, free or proprietary.

I should also say that it was RMS who spear headed the discussion with
the Govt when he came to Trivandrum. That alone shows how difficult it
is to convince some thing like Govt about the concept of freedom.

The big thing about the policy is that free software is now seen in
same footing as proprietary by government, which by itself is an
achievement, though much work remains to be done.

raj