[Fsf-india] Four more questions...

[Frederick Noronha]

Four questions in response to Pappu's quote (below): 

   1) How do you "use software for any purpose possible" if
   90% of the country (that goes for government departments in
   many cases, colleges, almost all schools, etc) cannot afford 
   the prices of internationally dominant software products, *and*
   at the same time we fight shy of pointing out that 
   here's a very, very affordable software option for the millions....

   2) How many percent of computer users can really "modify the
   software to suit your uses"? Is this merely a notional concept?
   Or, are we talking only of the freedom of the techie here?
   If so, aren't we guilty of leaving 99% in the cold? 

   3) How does one "help your neighbour" if money remains the
   primarily motivating factor? If money is *not* the main 
   factor, then why not be upfront about that?

   4) Community comes from sharing and giving freely. Freely as
   in -- without strings attached. In the real world, this gets
   translated into money terms. Where do we situate FS in this
   context, specially in an Indian or Third World backdrop?

My feeling is that the 'free beer versus free speech' debate makes sense
in a North American context. Where money/resources/food/beer is not so
important an issue as 'freedom', since almost everyone has the former. 

If one recalls rightly, the average US worker can earn enough to feed his
family for the full day, with just four hours of work. 

But, in an Indian context?

To stretch the argument: at the end of the day 'free beer' is intricately
related to 'free speech'. If you have the idea (the recipe for beer, in
this case) and are willing to share it because you subscribe to the idea
of 'free speech', one day I too could hope to get 'free beer' as a result
of your belief in 'free speech'.  

Could we take a closer look at the terms used in this allegory? The loaded
nature of the comparision might also be skewing our perspectives...

'Free beer' (a luxury in virtually any social context) is compared to
'free speech' (an essential in any self-respecting 21st century
society). What if we had a comparision like 'free libraries' versus 'free
speech'? Then maybe the arguments against the former wouldn't be so sharp.

FN 

PS: We perhaps need to keep in mind the ideological context of such an
arguement, where capitalism fails to understand the worth of a 'free'
(pricewise) or low-cost product....

PPS: Needless to say, I admire RMS, his work and principles. All that I'm
arguing here is that a construct that fits the US perfectly need not be
the most apt in an Indian, Third World, economically-different society.

>There are four  freedoms that has to be available,  to make a software
>free software. 
>  1) the freedom to use the software for any purpose possible
>  2) The freedom to help yourselves  by modifying the software to suit
>     your requirement
>  3) The freedom to help your  neighbor by distributing copies of the
>     software 
>  4) The  freedom  to build  a  community  by  enhancing software  and
>     redistributing the enhanced version. 
>bye,
>pappu. 

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