[Fsf-india] IT Policy Govt of Kerala

[Khuzaima A. Lakdawala]

"Rajkumar S." <raj2569@yahoo.com> writes:

> 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.

My point all along has been that our advocacy should start in the
right direction and with the right step. Trying to push Free Software
primarily on the basis of cost and technical merits is a thoroughly
flawed approach, as explained several times on this list. We cannot
hope that once we have started people with Free Software based on
these issues, as the *next* step we will make them understand about
freedom. We cannot put the cart before the horse. Please, please try
to understand this.

> > 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.

Isn't it *more* "natural" for a Government to be "concerned" about
freedom? Maybe not so in these days of POTO, but isn't it *originally*
supposed to be that way? Why should we simply become part of the
present status quo and put cost before freedom? We should leave the
cost-benefit approach to the "Linux" businessmen, whereas a (would be)
non-profit foundation like ours MUST concentrate on the freedom
approach.

Besides, on the practical front, every time we harp on the supposed
cost-effectiveness of Free Software vis-a-vis proprietary software, we
are actually driving small nails in our own coffin. In the future when
Free Software Entrepreneurs start viable businesses enabling them to
prosper, these early cost-benefit converts will say "Hey, you told us
this free software thingie was supposed to be very cheap and low
cost. You never told us anything about this freedom sh*t so why should we
now pay for getting these supposed freedoms? I am going back into the
arms of the proprietary software vendor or for some *real* cost
benefit I am going to sound out the friendly neighbourhood proprietary
software pirate!"

> 
> >         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.

The whole edifice of software "piracy" is built on a corrupt, immoral
and unethical foundation which treats software as a material object
and completely disregards the fact that the ability to access, copy
and modify information is in fact the greatest boon of the Information
Technology age. To argue that the same law would protect against GPL
violations is absolutely absurd because in case of "piracy" the law is
applied in a completely twisted manner suited to the profiteering of
proprietary software companies.

Besides, the Government doesn't have to waste public funds "training"
police parties and sending them off on "raids" to enforce the GPL, but
it does *exactly* that at the behest of NASSCOM, BSA etc to enforce
so-called "anti-piracy" laws.

> 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
> 
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-- 
Khuzaima A. Lakdawala