[FSF-India] Open Source and Free Software

[Khuzaima A. Lakdawala]

Dear sir/madam,

Kudos for your coverage of Mr. Richard M. Stallman's lecture on the
ills of Software Patents in today's Kochi City section of The Hindu.

I must, however, join issue with your Staff Reporter for describing
Mr. Stallman at the very beginning of the news article as "The
champion of open source software". This description is blatantly
incorrect and misleading.

As correctly pointed out later in the article, Mr. Stallman is the
founder of the Free Software Foundation and, if anything, is the
champion of Free Software, NOT open source software.

The Open Source Software movement, although not inimical to the Free
Software movement, is distinct from the Free Software movement in that
it only lays emphasis on the practical, i.e. technical and
economical, benefits of Free Software while completely ignoring and
disregarding the more important moral, ethical, philosophical and
political aspects of Free Software.

Please see
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html for more
information on the distinction between Open Source and Free Software.

Once again, I thank you for your coverage. But I plead you to please
refrain from mixing up Free Software and Open Source Software in your
future articles on Free Software and related issues.

-- 
Khuzaima A. Lakdawala