Fsf-friends April 2004

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

34 participants
79 discussions

Call the bluff
by Ramanraj K 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Mahesh T. Pai wrote: >(adding RMS and the board to the CC list) > >Arun M said on Sat, Apr 17, 2004 at 02:44:52PM +0530,: > > > How can FSF India go about fighting this issue legally.... > >This throws up a crucial issue about the role FSF has in India.... > >We need to reach out and down among the masses ... > >The people at sarovar.org were not willing to contest the dispute >because Apple had threatened to drag in their ISP, sponsor and the >company maintaining the website. > >These threats will apply also to us too, if we decide to host the >project. > > > -----Forwarded Message----- > > > So I request FSF India to take this challenge head on and mirror > > PlayFair in India, their by taking this case to court on behalf of > > free software enthusiasts. > >So far as the FSF-India is concerened, being a non-profit company... > >My opinion is based strictly on practical grounds - FSF India should >stay clear of this issue. > > > FSF India may avoid getting involved in this matter, without prejudice to any of its rights, and what follows is only for general information, so that members of this list are enlightened about these rights: Under the relevant portions of Section 52 of the Copyright Act, the following acts shall _not_ be infringement of copyright: (aa) the making or adaptation of a computer programme by the lawful possessor of a copy of such computer programme from such copy- (i) in order to utilise the computer programme for the purpose for which it was supplied; or (ii) to make back-up copies purely as a temporary protection against loss, destruction or damage in order only to utilise the computer programme for the purpose for which it was supplied; (ab)the doing of any act necessary to obtain information essential for operating inter-operability of an independently created computer programme with other programmes by a lawful possessor of a computer programme provided that such information is not otherwise readily available; (ac)the observation, study or test of functioning of the computer programme in order to determine the ideas and principles which underline any elements of the programme while performing such necessary acts necessary for the functions for which the computer programme was supplied; (ad)the making of copies or adaption of the computer programme from a personally legally obtained copy for non-commercial personal use; All these acts are specifically permitted by law. The program in question undoubtedly provided for inter-operabilty with Gnu, Gnu/Linux or FreeBSD systems. The so called copyright infringement is baseless. The law itself has provided the remedy against groundless threats too: Section 60. Remedy in the case of groundless threat of legal proceedings.- Where any person claiming to be the owner of copyright in any work, by circulars, advertisements or otherwise, threatens any other person with any legal proceedings or liability in respect of an alleged infringement of the copyright, any person aggrieved thereby may, notwithstanding anything contained in section 34 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (47 of 1963), institute a declaratory suit that the alleged infringement of any legal rights of the person making such threats and may in any such suit- (a) obtain an injunction against the continuance of such threats; and (b) recover such damages, if any, as he has sustained by reason of such threats. So please be aware of your rights. Though it is lawful and rightful to write such code, trivial programs are not that inspiring or exciting - there are so many other useful things waiting to be done.

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RE: [Fsf-friends] [OT] Say no to slavery and proprietary codecs
by Senthil_OR＠Dell.com 19 Apr '04

19 Apr '04

-----Original Message----- From: Ramanraj K Subject: [Fsf-friends] Say no to slavery and proprietary codecs Raj Mathur wrote: > > sdg> Hey, Looks like Apple has unleashed it's lawyers upon > sdg> sarovar.org for hosting fairplay. > sdg> http://sarovar.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=474 > >But let us also not give any undeserved free publicity to proprietary >companies. Let us stay focused on making the free and open software and >standards in music more accessible to more people. Ramanraj, One request.While replying kindly keep the subject line intact so that people (like me, who sort the mails in threaded fashion using the Subject line) may keep track and enjoy the discussion. Your subject line ofcourse relates to your content, but It would be a good ( list) practise I believe. What do you say? --- Senthil

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RE: [Fsf-friends] Unsubscription.
by Senthil_OR＠Dell.com 19 Apr '04

19 Apr '04

-----Original Message----- From:Tirthankar C. Patnaik Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 11:25 AM To: FSF Friends Subject: [Fsf-friends] Unsubscription. >>Folks, >> Could you please tell me how to unsubscribe from fsf-friends? I find I'm >> not able to provide the time I'd like anymore. -- You can unsubsribe by sending a mail to: fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in with subject unsubsribe. In case, you wish to know the other options provided by the software. Try the help command first. Sending a mail to the same id, but with the subject help. -- Senthil

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Document formats
by Mahesh T. Pai 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

What exactly is a standard? How do businessess profit from releasing document format specifications? Just found this interesting quote about PDF at http://news.com.com/2030-1046_3-5190097.html?tag=st.lh This is an interview with Bruce Chizen, Exec. VP, Adobe. <quote> (Q) You've documented a number of your key architectures: PostScript, PDF, and--albeit somewhat reluctantly--the Type 1 font format. But these are not open-source initiatives, nor are they official standards controlled by standards bodies like the World Wide Web Consortium. Although Adobe documents these formats, it alone still controls them. Have you found a profitable middle ground between proprietary architectures and open source? (A)With PostScript and PDF, we found that publishing the specifications--making them open, but not open standards, but not providing open source--is the right path for us. Once something becomes a standard driven by a standards body, it moves at a glacial pace. And innovation slows down significantly because you have to get everybody to agree and there's lots of compromise. If you make it totally open source, you don't get a return on investment. We believe that by opening up the specification, we allow other people to take advantage of it. But because we still own the source, we get to innovate around that standard more quickly than anybody else. We have found that to be a great balance. PDF is the best example of that. We work on Acrobat, we work on PDF, we announce the product, we ship it, and we open up the specification. We're already working on a whole series of applications, and we're already working on the next version of PDF. It seems to work. Customers are willing to pay a price--and even a premium--if they believe what they're buying is innovative and reliable. </quote> -- +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M., 'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road, Ernakulam, Cochin-682018, Kerala, India. http://paivakil.port5.com +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Gnus Grazing @Bangalore-Announce
by Rakesh Ambati 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

--- Arun M <arun(a)gnu.org.in> wrote: > It may be a good idea to post the details of the > meeting to list, time > and place. Others may also come. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Dear Friends, Here is the moment we were waiting for.I feel honored to invite you to the first unofficial 'Gnu(s) Grazing' meet. Date & Time =========== Sunday 18,April 2004 10:00 AM (Morning) Rendezvous Point ================ We will gather before the Gangaram's Book store on the M.G Road.Its next to Plaze theater.You can't miss it. For any further assistance you can email me off the list. This is the rendezvous point,ones all Gnu's arrive we'll hit someplace else.So try be there on time. What to do once you are there? ============================= Unfortunately,Once few of us meet each other in real world.So,just for the sake(its English sake, not Japanese ;D) of identification.Look out for guy in black T-Shirt with 'Active' written on it.That would be arky(\me). What we gonna do @ Unofficial Gnu(s) Grazing? ============================================ Now,that I leave it for your imagination. Perhaps we can discuss a road-plan for conducting such FSF related activities. Who's gonna be there ? ===================== We have Abhas,Senthil,Rahman,sajith. Who's missing ? =============== Arun (of course,he'll be with us soon) Sujith (he owe's us few cups of cappuccino) h'm am I missing anyone ? Cheers --arky PS: Please try to keep in touch so you are updated of the any changes. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html

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[Fsf-friends] Preliminary Injunction for GPL Infringement Granted by German Court
by Seth Johnson 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: pho: Munich Court Grants Preliminary Injuction For GPL Violations Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 23:23:39 EDT From: StpHinkle(a)aol.com To: pho(a)onehouse.com > From http://www.netfilter.org/news/2004-04-15-sitecom-gpl.html Of interest to editors and journalists covering: Linux, Free Software, Open Source, Copyright Law MUNICH COURT GRANTS PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION FOR INFRINGING USE OF GPL LICENSED SOFTWARE BERLIN, Germany - Apr. 14, 2004 -- The Munich district court granted a preliminary injuction against Sitecom Germany GmbH (http://www.sitecom.com/). This injunctive relieve has been applied by the netfilter/iptables project (http://www.netfilter.org/). Sitecom is offering a wireless access router product (WL-122) based on software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), developed by the netfilter/iptables project. The GNU GPL is a license commonly used for many free software projects, such as the Linux Operating System Kernel. The GPL licenses software free of cost, but requires any redistributor to provide the full source code. According to the court order, Sitecom did not fulfill the obligations imposed by the GNU General Public License covering the netfilter/iptables software. In particular, Sitecom did not make any source code offering or include the GPL license terms with their products. Following a warning notice, Sitecom refused to sign a declaration to cease and desist. Thus, the netfilter/iptables project was compelled to ask the court for a preliminnary injuction, banning Sitecom from distributing its product, unless Sitecom complies with all obligations imposed by the GNU GPL. "To my knowledge, this is the first case in which a judicial decision has been decreed on the applicability and the validity of the GNU GPL", says Dr. Till Jaeger, partner of the Berlin and Munich based law firm JBB Rechtsanwaelte (http://www.jbb.de/) that represented the netfilter/iptables project in the litigation. This preliminary injunction follows a series of out-of-court settlement agreements that the netfilter/iptables project has concluded within a short period of time. When asked about the reasons for the sudden rise in legal pressure for GPL compliance, Harald Welte, Chairman of the Netfilter Core Team states: "We are not in any way opposing the commercial use of free and open source software. Specifically, there is no legal risk of using GPL licensed software in commercial products. But vendors have to comply with the license terms, just like they would have to with any other, even proprietary software license agreement." About the netfilter/iptables project The netfilter/iptables project provides state-of-the-art network security software for Linux firewalling, packet filter and network address translation (NAT), distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Being part of the linux operating system kernel, the software is running on virtually every Linux installation. For more information on the project or the software, visit http://www.netfilter.org/ Media contact: netfilter core team Harald Welte Phone: +49-30-24033902 Email: laforge(a)netfilter.org -- DRM is Theft! We are the Stakeholders! New Yorkers for Fair Use http://www.nyfairuse.org [CC] Counter-copyright: http://realmeasures.dyndns.org/cc I reserve no rights restricting copying, modification or distribution of this incidentally recorded communication. Original authorship should be attributed reasonably, but only so far as such an expectation might hold for usual practice in ordinary social discourse to which one holds no claim of exclusive rights.

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[Fsf-friends] Re: Re: [India-egov] Microsoft to conduct five e-Gov seminars in India,10 March 2004(fwd)
by Atul Asthana ＠ home 18 Apr '04

18 Apr '04

Dear Frederick, I guess, we need to draft a letter which brings out the comparitive advantages of using open source in the government. We also need to ensure that OSS becomes part of school and college syllabi. We can then publish the letter on various lists and let people choose as to what their concerns are. Regards. Atul Asthana atulasthana(a)gmx.net 2004-03-15 20:40:05 First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. --Mahatma Gandhi ======= At 2004-03-15, 13:32:00 Frederick Noronha (FN) fred(a)bytesforall.org wrote: ======= >Hi Atul, I certainly think this should be done. You have my full support. >Copying this to FSF-FRIENDS. We can locate the MPs' names (even if the Lok >Sabha has been dissolved) from the parliament.nic.in site. At least in the >Rajya Sabha for now. In addition, we could also get friendly MPs to raise >parliamentary questions. I know a couple, and FLOSS issues have already >been raised in the Indian parliament, thanks to them. FN > >On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Atul Asthana @ home wrote: > >> Dear Frederick, >> >> Was planning to start a campaign to write to MLAs/MPs, Ministers, >> Bureaucrats stating advantages of OSS over Microsoft. >> Do you think that this campaign can be initiated thru any of the >> mailing lists (you and I are on, or otherwise)? That is we encourage >> people on the mailing lists to write to their representatives, >> bueaucrats known to them etc? >> Its not a difficult task to find names and addresses of >> MLAs/MPs/Bureaucrats. >> >> >> Regards. >> Atul Asthana >> atulasthana(a)gmx.net >> 2004-03-15 09:51:53 >> >> First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. >> --Mahatma Gandhi >> >> ======= At 2004-03-10, 13:54:00 Frederick Noronha (FN) fred(a)sancharnet.in wrote: ======= >> >> >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> > >> > >> >10 March, 2004 [ www.i4donline.net ] >> > >> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > >> >Microsoft to conduct five e-Gov seminars in India >> >Microsoft Corporation India today announced a series of five >> >e-Governance seminars targeted at bureaucrats and Government >> >officials. The first seminar in the series will be held at Bhopal. >> >Targeted at bureaucrats and government officials, the seminars >> >will be conduced across of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, >> >Orissa and West Bengal. >> >http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/03/10/stories/2004031002281700.htm > >> > >> ><*> To visit your group on the web, go to: >> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/India-egov/ > >------------------------------------------------------------------- > March 2004 | Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist >Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa | Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 > 1 2 3 4 5 6 | ---------------------------------------- > 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | Email fred at bytesforall.org >14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | Writing with a difference >21 22 23 24 25 26 27 | ... on what makes *the* difference >28 29 30 31 | http://www.bytesforall.org >------------------------------------------------------------------- >CHECK OUT USENET http://www.algebra.com/~scig/approved/threads.html >------------------------------------------------------------------- = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

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Re: [LIG] [OT] Sarovar, Fairplay, Apple
by Rajkumar S 17 Apr '04

17 Apr '04

Sayamindu Dasgupta wrote: > Hey, > Looks like Apple has unleashed it's lawyers upon sarovar.org for hosting > fairplay. > http://sarovar.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=474 Yes, sarovar team has decided to pull the project down. It was not a happy decision to take, but too many factors were out of our control and people want to avoid court appearances if possible. This case sets dangerous precedents, and if I am right is the first use of litigation against a free software site in India. Corporations are using litigation as a very effective weapon against freedom, as free software hackers have little defense against it. I personally believe that an organization like FSF India should take up this case on behalf of free software hackers in this country and we all should support them in this endeavor. I personally have many difference of opinion with some of the policies and actions of FSF India, but this is not the time to think about the differences, but what we have in common. This is a threat against all of us and we all should give our support to FSF India in fighting it, if they decide to do so. I have already written to FSF Board to consider this, and extending all support including what ever money I can muster to fight this case. I request you all to write to RMS and fsf board expressing your support, in what ever way you can, to help them fight this. Today it's me, Tomorrow it could be any one of us. raj

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Unsubscription.
by Tirthankar C. Patnaik 17 Apr '04

17 Apr '04

Folks, Could you please tell me how to unsubscribe from fsf-friends? I find I'm not able to provide the time I'd like anymore. TIA, -tir -- -- Tirthankar, IGIDR. +91-22-2840 0919 x275 (r), x593(o), x542(CFL). http://www.igidr.ac.in/~tir FIDELITY, n. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.

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RE: [Fsf-friends] Gnus Grazing @Bangalore-Announce
by Senthil_OR＠Dell.com 15 Apr '04

15 Apr '04

All are welcome! If feel joining us "Gnus Grazing" ,we would be more than happy to hear about it and meet you there (and share our fodder as well). Date & Time =========== Sunday 18,April 2004 10:00 AM (Morning) Rendezvous Point ================ We will gather before the Gangaram's Book store on the M.G Road. -- Senthil Phone# 36945246 -----Original Message----- From: Rakesh Ambati Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 8:30 PM To: Arun M; fsf Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Gnus Grazing @Bangalore-Announce --- Arun M <arun(a)gnu.org.in> wrote: > It may be a good idea to post the details of the > meeting to list, time > and place. Others may also come. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Dear Friends, Here is the moment we were waiting for.I feel honored to invite you to the first unofficial 'Gnu(s) Grazing' meet. Date & Time =========== Sunday 18,April 2004 10:00 AM (Morning) Rendezvous Point ================ We will gather before the Gangaram's Book store on the M.G Road.Its next to Plaze theater.You can't miss it. For any further assistance you can email me off the list. This is the rendezvous point,ones all Gnu's arrive we'll hit someplace else.So try be there on time. What to do once you are there? ============================= Unfortunately,Once few of us meet each other in real world.So,just for the sake(its English sake, not Japanese ;D) of identification.Look out for guy in black T-Shirt with 'Active' written on it.That would be arky(\me). What we gonna do @ Unofficial Gnu(s) Grazing? ============================================ Now,that I leave it for your imagination. Perhaps we can discuss a road-plan for conducting such FSF related activities. Who's gonna be there ? ===================== We have Abhas,Senthil,Rahman,sajith. Who's missing ? =============== Arun (of course,he'll be with us soon) Sujith (he owe's us few cups of cappuccino) h'm am I missing anyone ? Cheers --arky PS: Please try to keep in touch so you are updated of the any changes.

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Fsf-friends April 2004