Fsf-friends December 2005

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Re: Re: [Fwd: PIL against Bangalore One (long)
by Frederick Noronha 21 Dec '05

21 Dec '05

Hi RMS, Bangalore One is a major e-governance project, which went to Microsoft, in Bangalore, India. It appears that a group of technical people, including some expats (Indians based overseas) have now gone to court, challenging the manner in which a huge contract was awarded to Microsoft. It's nice to see citizens -- and those not necessarily involved with Free Software/Open Source themselves -- waking up to the implications of proprietorial software in the Third World. The information I posted is based on what I received. I don't have additional details, but this seems like one development that needs to be kept track of. FN ============================================================ From: "Richard M. Stallman" <rms(a)gnu.org> Date: 2005/12/21 Wed AM 11:00:32 GMT+05:30 To: fred(a)bytesforall.org Subject: Re: [Fwd: PIL against Bangalore One (long) I can read the words, but I don't understand what it means. I gave up after about 10%. ============================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

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[Fwd: PIL against Bangalore One (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

Please take a look at this... sorry it's very long -------- Forwarded Message -------- From: eGov INDIA <egovindia(a)yahoo.com> Cc: egov india <egovindia(a)yahoo.com> Subject: PIL against Bangalore One irregularities admitted by the Karnataka High Court (RTI Act has also played an important role to get information) Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:26:20 -0800 (PST) PIL against Bangalore One irregularities admitted by the Karnataka High Court (RTI Act has also played an important role to get information) 13th December 2005. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against Bangalore One project filed by Mr.Veeresh who runs a non governmental organization called Brashtachara Nirmoolana Vedike (Forum for eradication of corruption) in Bangalore had been admitted by the Karnataka High Court today. The HC had ordered issue of notices to the respondents. The Writ petition had raised serious issues about lack of transparency and corruption in the award of contract for the Bangalore One project. Mr.Veeresh is a member of the egovINDIA – yahoo group which advocates true e-governance in India with special focus on benefits accruing to the common man in the form of reduction in corruption. Mr.Veeresh has been in the forefront of a wide variety of anti corruption activities in Karnataka. Mr. Veeresh is also a member of EKAVI, INDIA RTI and INDIAWBA. Mr. Veeresh has used the RTI Act to get information from authorities. The list of respondents includes Microsoft Corporation (I) Private Limited, New Delhi, Ram Infotech Limited, CMS computers limited, Government of Karnataka, Government of India, Mr.J.Satyanarayana, CEO of NISG among others. The main contention of the petitioner is that the entire Bangalore One project was conceived to entrust to the contract to Respondents 3 and 4 (Ram Infotech and CMS Consortium). He had alleged serious corruption in the project. He had also the legality of prescribing Microsoft technology which is proprietary and costed when open source software was available free. The MoU entered into between the Government of Karnataka and Microsoft had been challenged in the Writ Petition. The petitioner had raised questions about the involvement of NISG and its CEO Mr.Satyanarayana. We have received a part of the PIL documents. From out of the that we are giving the following excerpts. V.M.Kumaraswamy, Moderator, eGovINDIA group. Excerpts from the Writ Petition: "The petitioner submits that the entire exercise is intended to award the contract to respondents 3 and 4. The petitioner submits that in this context the e-seva project implemented by respondents 3 and 4 in Andhra Pradesh and the Memorandum of Understanding entered into between respondents 3,4 and 6 to adopt Microsoft .NET platform in the implementation of e-seva project assumes significance. The involvement of 9th respondent in advancing the business interest of respondents 3,4 and 6 is also explicit". The petitioner had questioned the legality of the MoU entered between Microsoft and the Government of Karnataka. "The petitioner submits that the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 suffers from illegalities and infirmities. How and under what authority the 7th respondent entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the 6h respondent binding the state of Karnataka is not known. It is also contrary to the Karnataka Act 29 of 2000". "The petitioner submits that in terms of the Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft, Government of Karnataka has adopted the .NET platform for the B1 Project. Microsoft would provide the required software at a concessional rate as part of its responsibility under the Memorandum of Understanding. It would also provide consultancy to Government of Karnataka and help the successful tenderer. The petitioner submits that the intention of the Government is clear. The tenderer has to use the software platform provided by the 6th respondent only. All the major Indian software companies which use non Microsoft software platform are practically excluded. It is intriguing that when Indian companies are gaining world wide recognition in software industry, the Government of Karnataka is promoting Microsoft. Leading Indian companies cannot use their software built on non Microsoft platform. Even if they were to participate in the tender, they are obliged under the tender conditions to buy Microsoft's .NET software and a host of other Microsoft software packages. The petitioner submits under the heading 'application architecture' it is stipulated as follows: " it is necessary for the bidders to adopt the Microsoft .NET platform. This is mandated in the light of the Memorandum of Understanding between Microsoft and Government of Karnataka, in relation to implementation of B1 Project. This requirement translates to the use of BizTalk Server for Application Integration, IIS for web server and SQL server for database. The bidders can propose appropriate products for other components like firewall, Storage etc., Subject to this requirement, the application architecture for B1 is indicated in this Section. The petitioner submits that BizTalk server for application integration, Internet Information Server (IIS) for web server and Microsoft SQL server are the proprietary products of Microsoft. Thus the entire contract is conceived to promote the business interest of Microsoft in India in total disregard of national interest. Indian industries in the software field are totally bypassed". "The petitioner submits that except respondents 3 and 4, none else could satisfy the qualification prescribed, namely completing a similar project for a period of one year in India. Obviously while preparing the tender document , the e-seva project in Andhra Pradesh which was awarded to respondents 3 and 4 was operating in the minds of those who settled the tender conditions. The role of the 9th respondent as the Chief Executive Officer in preparing such a document raises serious doubts. The 9th respondent has a definite role in awarding the contract to respondents 3 and 4". Grounds for the Writ Petition. The petitioner submits that the Memorandum of Understanding entered into between respondents 6 and 7 dated 13-11-2004 and the contract entered into between the 1st respondent and the 3rd respondent dated 20-12-2004 are liable to be declared as illegal and invalid for the following among other grounds. A: The Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 has been entered into in total violation of law. It is opposed to public policy. B: The government cannot enter into a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the business interest of the 6th respondent in the manner it has been done. C: The tender proposal for Bangalore One Project is prepared in terms of the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002. The tender proposal itself is thus conceived fraudulently. The entire transaction is vitiated. D: The entire project is conceived to award the contract to respondents 3 and 4 who in turn have entered into an agreement with the 6th respondent. E: The committees constituted for preparing the tender documents and award of contract have only carried out the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 entered into between respondents 6 and 7. F: The 5th respondent is not promoting eGovernance. The funds provided for eGovernance are diverted to enrich a few. The 9th respondent is extending the e-seva project which was commenced in Andhra Pradesh when he was the Secretary to Government to other states. The public statements given by him apropos the role of the 5th respondent in the promotion of e-governance proves that he is guilty of promoting private business interests in the name of e-governance. G: The contract dated 20-12-2004 entered into between the 1st respondent and 3rd respondent is not a genuine contract to promote e-governance. The contract is brought about fraudulently to enrich respondents 3, 4 and 6 adverse to the interest of the general public and e-governance. H: The concept of e-governance is misused to promote utility bill collections. There is no e-governance at all. The public are not benefited. True e-governance should help the people to obtain licences, permits, building plans, lay out approvals, social service benefits, rural development scheme benefits etc online using online two way transaction procedure. I: Microsoft is interested in selling its proprietary and closed software. Even in America, companies such as IBM and Sun Micro Systems have introduced open source software systems. Indian companies who are acclaimed to be within the fortune 500 companies in the world are adopting open source software systems. The Government of Karnataka cannot in the circumstances, in the name of e-governance promote the sale of proprietary and priced software of Microsoft adverse to the interest of Indian companies. In fact the Indian companies have been practically excluded from competing for the tender. It is against public policy and national interest. J: Indian companies who adopt open source software systems have world wide recognition. In the circumstances, execution of the contract under the Bangalore One project insisting on the adoption of only Microsoft .NET and other Microsoft products is illegal. K: There is arbitrariness and corruption. The persons involved in promoting private business interests for extraneous consideration should be identified and prosecuted and punished in accordance with law. L: The manner in which the tender conditions have been contrived to award the contracts to respondents 3 and 4 who in turn have business agreement with the 6th respondent is fraudulent. There is a design to extend this contract throughout India under the auspicious of the 5th respondent. Instead of promoting e-governance which is intended to eradicate corruption, in the name of e-governance an illegal contract is entered into. In the above circumstances, having no other alternative and efficacious remedy the petitioner in genuine public interest is filing this writ petition. The petitioner has not filed any other writ petition or other proceedings with respect to the same cause of action. The petitioner therefore prays that this Hon'ble court may be pleased to issue a writ of Certiorari or any other writ or order or direction in the nature of the writ calling for the records relating to the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 entered into between respondent 7 and 9 and the agreement dated 20-12-2004 entered into between the first respondent and the 3rd respondent quash the same and pass such other orders as the Hon'ble court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case and render justice". Respondents: 1. State of Karnataka represented by the Secretary to Government, Department of e-governance, M.S. Building, Bangalore. 2. The Director, BangaloreOne Project, Government of Karnataka, Room No. 106, 1st floor, Gate No.1, M.S.Building, Bangalore 2. 3. CMS Computers Limited, 2nd Floor, No. 52, St. Marks Road, Bangalore. represented by its Managing Director 4. Ram Informatics Limited, 2nd Floor, Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad represented by its Managing Director. 5. National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), IIIT Campus, Gachi Bowli, Hyderabad -500 019 Andhra Pradesh Represented by its Chief Executive Officer. 6. Microsoft Corporation (I) Private Limited, The Great Eastern Centre, 70 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019. represented by its Managing Director. 7. Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of Karnataka, M.S. Building, Bangalore. 8. The Union of India represented by The Secretary to Government, Communication and Information Technology department, New Delhi. 9. J.Satyanarayana IAS., CEO, National Institute of Smart Government, IIIT Campus, Gachi Bowli, Hyderabad -500 019 Andhra Pradesh ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am V. M. Kumaraswamy MBA, is in business since 1971. Founder and Moderator of India's largest e-governance yahoo-group under the title eGovINDIA. You can reach this group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eGovINDIA eGovINDIA is a group dedicated to promoting true e-governance in India, consisting of members from all walks of life from within INDIA and the World over. Many State Ministers and senior bureaucrats of India are members of this group. We do have lawyers, social activists, freelance writers and journalists in the group. The group is meant for serious activists only. Casual members are not allowed to join the group. The group is also moderated by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. As on date, the group has nearly 2500 members. The focus of this group is true e-governance and use of open source technology in e-governance. The members of this forum have a passion to see a truly e-governed India, resulting in transparency and easy access to government services by the common man, notably the depressed class people (so called untouchables), women and people living in far flung and difficult areas of India. eGovINDIA's subsidiary groups: India WhistleBlower Act: The Action Grouphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDIA_WBA Exclusive Discussion Group on Judicial and Legal Reforms in INDIA.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JUDICIALREFORMS Right to Information in INDIA discussion group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDIARTI --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read this Publication in Dataquest on e-gov corruption. It gives how NISG is handling eGovernance in INDIA. NASSCOM is MAJORITY(51%) partner in NISG. Even NASSCOM is playing into the hands of NISG. Data quest in its recent issue had written about the corruption in e-Govt. http://www.dqindia.com/content/DQTop20_05/BestEmployers2005/2005/105090203.… The E-governance Muddle What was expected to bring transparency in government transactions has got mired in a slew of allegations. Dataquest probes the charges made by an IAS officer against his own clan... Shubhendu Parth Friday, September 02, 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NICSTAFF(a)hub.nic.in wrote: > Mr. Umashankar is very right in trying to get the truth of it. There are many such things happening in the name of E-gov during last four years without any tangible social benefits to the common man. Mr Umashankar is a man who has done work in grassroots level and has soiled his hand in doing things for common man. He is unlike others who mostly have been involving themselves discharging their financial and administrative powers only for outsourcing the establishment of networks after network and building organizations/egov-centers which are very easy but very expensive having little significance for common man. No doubt these activities are good for officers to make them IT champion and help them build their shelf image. This has been happening from the year 2000 when in one go we have 30 IT secretaries in states and 60 IT managers in central Governments without having any IT knowledge and experience. GOI has spent crores of rupees in the name of E-governance. Now we have hundreds of networks like state wide networks and E-governance centres and Organisations like NISG. Since these are already established, therfore, they have to be functional. we know how these are functioning.. All networks are mostly being used for personal e-mails (not necessarily official mail) without having much for any E-governance applications. Lot of Recurring expenditures being borne by Govt of India for maintaining such networks. NISG may be section 25 company which can not be given project out rightly by any government agency without having any tender. But NISG bags projects directly from Govt department as single agency and it is surprising to note that NISG, in turn, awards project out rightly to single agency without having any tendering procedure. This is serious issue. Mr Umashankar has reason to raise this issue. We should support his observation. I am sorry in case some one feels bad about what i wrote. But it is reality that we have to face it sooner or later... Any thing we do wrongly now it will have multiple effect and it will cost government India hugely. Mr. Umashankar has not blamed Mr.Satynarayana personally. May be Mr Satyanarayan has been posted to head an organisation where there is no work at present and has no significant agenda. He is doing it to justify his posting. Do you all know? when Mr Arun shourie was Minister for D/O Administrative Reforms , Govt Of India, has out rightly rejected the concept of NISG. Many influential people in India have been establishing organization for their own gratifications but least of them see that these organizations really deliver. sorry to bother you all regards NICSTAFF

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Free Software as a Social Movement (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=9350 Free Software as a Social Movement Justin Podur interviews Richard Stallman Richard Stallman interviewed by Justin Podur December 18, 2005 NOTE: ZNet has begun to explore the possibility of converting to free software. If you would like to help in this effort, please go to the Free ZNet Project forums, register, and introduce yourself. Richard Stallman is one of the founders of the Free Software Movement and lead developer of the GNU Operating System. His book is 'Free Software, Free Society'. I caught up with him by phone on December 1/05. JP: Can you first of all explain the "Free Software Movement'. RMS: The basic idea of the Free Software Movement is that the user of software deserves certain freedoms. There are four essential freedoms, which we label freedoms 0 through 3. Freedom 0 is the freedom to run the software as you wish. Freedom 1 is the freedom to study and change the source code as you wish. Freedom 2 is the freedom to copy and distribute the software as you wish. And freedom 3 is the freedom to create and distribute modified versions as you wish. With these four freedoms, users have full control of their own computers, and can use their computers to cooperate in a community. Freedoms 0 and 2 directly benefit all users, since all users can exercise them. Freedoms 1 and 3, only programmers can directly exercise, but everyone benefits from them, because everyone can adopt (or not) the changes that programmers make. Thus, free software develops under the control of its users. Non-free software, by contrast, keeps users divided and helpless. It is distributed in a social scheme designed to divide and subjugate. The developers of non-free software have power over their users, and they use this power to the detriment of users in various ways. It is common for non-free software to contain malicious features, features that exist not because the users want them, but because the developers want to force them on the users. The aim of the free software movement is to escape from non-free software. JP: What was your history with the free software movement? RMS: I launched the movement in 1983 with a deliberate decision to develop a complete world of free software. The idea is not just to produce a scattering of free programs that were nice to use. Rather, the idea is to systematically build free software so that one can escape completely from non-free software. Non-free software is basically antisocial, it subjugates it users, and it should not exist. So what I wanted was to create a community in which it does not exist. A community where we would escape from non-free software into freedom. The first collection of programs you need in order to escape non-free software is an operating system. With an operating system, you can do a lot of things with your computer. Without an operating system, even if you have a lot of applications, you cannot do anything -- you cannot run them without an operating system. In 1983 all operating systems were proprietary. That meant that the first step you had to take in using a computer was to give up your freedom: they required users to sign a contract, a promise not to share, just to get an executable version that you couldn't look at or understand. In order to use your computer you had to sign something saying you would betray your community. Thus, I needed to create a free operating system. It happened that operating system development was my field, so I was technically suited for the task. It was also the first job that had to be done. The operating system we created was compatible with Unix, and was called GNU. GNU stands for "GNU is Not Unix", and the most important thing about GNU is that it is not Unix. Unix is a non-free operating system, and you are not allowed to make a free version of Unix. We developed a free system that is like Unix, but not Unix. We wrote all the parts of it from scratch. In 1983, there were hundreds of components to the Unix operating system. We began the long process of replacing them one by one. Some of the components took a few days, others took a year or several. By 1992, we had all of the essential components except one: the kernel. The kernel is one of the major essential components of the system. In GNU, we began developing a kernel in 1990. I chose the initial design based on a belief that it would be a quick design to implement. My choice backfired and it took much longer than I'd hoped. In 1992, the Linux kernel was liberated. It had been released in 1991, but on a non-free license. In 1992 the developer changed the license for the kernel, making it free. That meant we had a free operating system, which I call "GNU/Linux' or "GNU plus Linux'. However, when this combination was made, the users got confused, and began to call the whole thing "Linux'. That is not very nice. First of all, it isn't nice because there are thousands of people involved in the GNU project who deserve a share of the credit. We started the project, and did the biggest part of the work, so we deserve to get equal mention. (Some people believe that the kernel alone is more important than the rest of the operating system. This belief appears to result from an attempt to construct a justification for the "Linux" misnomer.) But there is more at stake than just credit: the GNU Project was a campaign for freedom, and Linux was not. The developer of Linux had other motives, motives that were more personal. That does not diminish the value of his contribution. His motives were not bad. He developed the system in order to amuse himself and learn. Amusing oneself is good -- programming is great fun. Wanting to learn is also good. But Linux was not designed with the goal of liberating cyberspace,, and the motives for Linux would not have given us the whole GNU/Linux system. Today tens of millions of users are using an operating system that was developed so they could have freedom -- but they don't know this, because they think the system is Linux and that it was developed by a student "just for fun'. JP: So the GNU+Linux system is not an accident. RMS: You cannot rely on accidents to defend freedom. Accidents can sometimes help, but you need people who are aware and determined to do this. Because it was not designed specifically for freedom, it is no coincidence that the first license to Linux was non-free. In fact I don't know why he changed it. JP: Does the difference between the GNU project and Linux relate to the difference between "free software' and "open source'? RMS: As GNU+Linux came to be used by thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, and then millions, they started to talk to each other: Look at how powerful, reliable, convenient, cheap, and fun this system is. Most people talking about it, though, never mentioned that it was about freedom. They never thought about it that way. And so our work spread to more people than our ideas did. Linus Torvalds, the developer of Linux, never agreed with our ideas. He was not a proponent of the ethical aspects of our ideas or a critic of the antisocial nature of non-free software. He just claimed that our software was technically superior to particular competitors. That claim happened to be true: in the 1990s, someone did a controlled experiment to measure the reliability of software, feeding random input sequences into different programs (Unix systems and GNU systems), and found GNU to be the most reliable. He repeated the tests years later, and GNU was still the most reliable. The ideas of Torvalds led by 1996 to a division in the community on goals. One group was for freedom, the other for powerful and reliable software. There were regular public arguments. In 1998 the other camp chose the term "open source' to describe their position. "Open source' is not a movement, in my view. It is, perhaps, a collection of ideas, or a campaign. JP: Since we will be talking about this more, perhaps now is a good time to define "movement'. RMS: I don't have a definition ready, I'll have to think of one. Let us define it as a collection of people working to promote an ideal. Or maybe, an ideal, together with an activity to promote it. JP: So, "open source' is missing the ideal part? RMS: They recommend a development methodology and claim that the model will produce superior software. If so, to us, it's a bonus. Freedom often allows one to achieve convenience. I appreciate having more powerful software, and if freedom helps that, good. But for us in the free software movement that is secondary. JP: And in fact one should be willing to sacrifice some power and convenience of the software for freedom. RMS: Absolutely. The Politics of Free Software JP: Many of ZNet's readers see themselves as part of some movement -- anti-poverty, or anti-war, or for some other form of social change. Can you say something about why such folks ought to payy attention and relate to the free software movement? RMS: If you are against the globalization of business power, you should be for free software. JP: -- But it isn't the global aspect of business power, is it? If it were local business power, that wouldn't be acceptable? RMS: -- People who say they are against globalization are really against the globalization of business power. They are not actuallyy against globalization as such, because there are other kinds of globalization, the globalization of cooperation and sharing knowledge, which they are not against. Free software replaces business power with cooperation and the sharing of knowledge. Globalizing a bad thing makes it worse. Business power is bad, so globalizing it is worse. But globalizing a good thing is usually good. Cooperation and sharing of knowledge are good, and when they happen globally, they are even better. The kind of globalization there are demonstrations against is the globalization of business power. And free software is a part of that movement. It is the expression of the opposition to domination of software users by software developers. JP: How would you respond to those who suggest that free software activists lack a sense of proportion? Given the vast scale and suffering of war, invasions, occupations, poverty, doesn't the freedom to use computers pale to insignificance? RMS: Maybe our views have been misrepresented. It is impossible for one person to be involved in all issues. It shouldn't be surprising that a programmer would be involved where his skills and talents are most effective. If I thought free software was the only or most important issue, I can see how people might think that that lacks proportion. But I do not think it is the only or most important issue. I just believe this is where I can do the most good. A problem arises when people who might be sympathetic to our ethical position, but focus on other issues, fall into the habit of helping to pressure others into using non-free software. It falls to me to tell them they are doing so, that they with their own actions are giving certain large companies more power. When you send someone a ".doc' file, a "Word' file, or an audio or video file in RealPlayer or Quicktime format, you are actually pressuring someone to give up their freedom. Perhaps because I constantly have to bring this up, people believe I don't have a sense of proportion. Sometimes people take for granted that I will participate in those activities with them. Thus, when I webcast a speech, I have to ask which format it is going to be webcast in. I am not going to go along with a webcast of my speech about freedom that you have to give up your freedom in order to hear or watch. Once I put my coat over a camera before giving my speech, when I learned it was webcasting in RealPlayer format. JP: Gandhi, in his "Hind Swaraj', which was originally a series of newspaper articles, asked himself and answered a similar question. He was talking about how India had to get rid not only of British control, but of all of the bad attributes of "western civilization'. He asked himself: "How can one argue against western civilization using a printing press and writing in English'? His answer was that sometimes you have to use poison to kill poison. RMS: But knowing English doesn't subjugate -- you didn't have to give up any freedom in India to know English. And I imagine that in India, with so many different languaages, there was no better language he could use to communicate. JP: When you say there was no better language than English, are you suggesting that it becomes an ethical issue when there is an alternative, but not before? RMS: It becomes an ethical issue when there is a restriction. The use of English might be good or bad for India, but knowing it doesn't take away your freedom. India regained independence but didn't get rid of English; in fact, I learned recently that there are people in India today whose first language is English and don't speak other languages. By contrast, to put RealPlayer on your computer, you actually have to give up some of your freedom. JP: Should ZNet use free software? RMS: The alternative is herding people into giving up their freedom, which is acting contrary to the spirit and purpose of Z. Most people have not recognized that there is an ethical choice involved in the use of software, because most people have only seen proprietary software and have not begun to consider alternative social arrangements. Z Mag is accustomed to looking at the justice of social arrangements, and could help others consider the social arrangements about software. JP: But is there still an ethical issue if there is no alternative? If, say, there is no free software way of doing a particular job, for ZNet for example? RMS: One can live without doing those jobs. JP: What criteria? How can one decide such a thing? RMS: If you absolutely must do a particular job then you should contribute to the creation of a free replacement. If you are not a programmer, you can still find a way to contribute--such as by donating money so others can develop it. JP: So can you see no circumstances in which using non-free software would be the lesser of evils? RMS: There are some special circumstances. To develop GNU, I used Unix. But first, I thought about whether it would be ethical to do that. I concluded it was legitimate to use Unix to develop GNU, because GNU's purpose was to help everyone else stop using Unix sooner. We weren't merely using Unix to do some worthwhile job, we were using it to end the specific evil that we were participating in. JP: So for ZNet, you wouldn't advocate something that involved losing readers, scaling back operations ? RMS: You wouldn't have to. There is a University in Brazil that decided to switch entirely to free software, but they could not find free software to do certain necessary jobs, so they hired programmers to develop the free software. (This cost a part of the money they saved on license fees.) ZNet could do that, too. If you participate in development of the free replacement for a program, then you can excuse temporarily continuing to run it. In the case of ZNet, I doubt you would need any free software that doesn't exist. Web sites and magazines already run with free software exclusively. You could probably switch very easily. Capitalism and Strategy JP: I have read other interviews with you in which you said you are not anti-capitalist. I think a definition of capitalism might help here. RMS: Capitalism is organizing society mainly around business that people are free to do within certain rules. JP: Business? RMS: I don't have a definition of business ready. I think we know what business means. JP: -- But "anti-capitalists' use a different definition. They see capitalism as markets, private property, and, fundamentally, cllass hierarchy and class division. Do you see class as fundamental to capitalism? RMS: No. We have had a lot of social mobility, class mobility, in the United States. Fixed classes--which I do not like--are not a necessary aspect of capitalism. However, I don't believe that you can use social mobility as an excuse for poverty. If someone who is very poor has a 5% chance of getting rich, that does not justify denying that person food, shelter, clothing, medical care, or education. I believe in the welfare state. JP: But you are not for equality of outcomes? RMS: No, I'm not for equality of outcomes. I want to prevent horrible outcomes. But aside from keeping people safe from excruciating outcomes, I believe some inequality is unavoidable. JP: Inequality based on how much effort people put forth? RMS: Yes, but also luck. JP: You don't want society to reward luck, though. RMS: Luck is just another word for chance. It is unavoidable that chance has an effect on your life. But poverty is avoidable. It is horrible for people to suffer hunger, death for lack of medical care, to work 12 hours a day just to survive. (Well, I work 12 hours a day, but that's unpaid activism, not a job -- so it's ok.) JP: You get the chance to exercise your talents, which is rewarding. Do you think society should reward people for their innate talents? RMS: Not directly, but people can use their talents to do things. I don't have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don't think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice. I'm a Liberal, in US terms (not Canadian terms). I'm against fascism. JP: A definition would help here too. RMS: Fascism is a system of government that sucks up to business and has no respect for human rights. So the Bush regime is an example, but there are lots of others. In fact, it seems we are moving towards more fascism globally. JP: It is interesting that you used the term "escape' at the beginning of the interview. Most people who think about "movements' think in terms of building an opposition, changing public opinion, and forcing concessions from the powerful. RMS: What we are doing is direct action. I did not think I could get anywhere convincing the software companies to make free software if I did political activities, and in any case I did not have any talent or skills for it. So I just started writing software. I said, if those companies won't respect our freedom, we'll develop our own software that does. JP: But if we are talking about governments and fascism, what do you do when they simply make your software illegal? RMS: Well, then you are shafted. That is what has happened. Certain kinds of free software are illegal. JP: What is an example? RMS: Software to play DVDs. There is a program called DECSS still circulating underground. But not only has the US outlawed it, but the US is pressuring other countries to adopt the same censorship. Canada was considering it, I'm not sure how the case turned out. The European Union adopted a directive and now countries are implementing it with laws that are actually harsher than the directive. JP: How do you deal with that? RMS: We are trying to oppose it in the countries that have not passed it and, eventually, we hope to get it abolished and liberate the countries that have. We cannot do that by direct action, but developing the software can still be done underground. I think that, in the US, developing it and not distributing it is not illegal. Free Software Movement Issues JP: Let's conclude with some of the other issues the free software movement is dealing with. RMS: The main issues are hardware with secret specifications, software patents, and treacherous computing. On hardware with secret specifications: it is hard to write free software for hardware whose specifications are secret. In the 1970s the computer company would hand you a manual with information about every level of interface, from the electrical signals to the software, so you could properly use their products. But for the past 10-15 years, there has been hardware whose specs are secret. Proprietary software developers can get the specs if they sign a non-disclosure agreement; the public cannot. So we are forced to experiment and reverse-engineer, which takes time, or pressure the companies, which sometimes works. The worst example is in 3-D graphics, in which most chip specs are secret. One company has published its specs, and drivers have been written for another without help. But the company ``NVidious' (that's what I call it) has not been co-operative, and I think people should not buy computers with its chips. An illustration of software patents is excerpted from my op-ed from the UK Guardian: A novel and a modern complex programme have certain points in common: each is large and implements many ideas. Suppose patent law had been applied to novels in the 1800s; suppose states such as France had permitted the patenting of literary ideas. How would this have affected Hugo's writing? How would the effects of literary patents compare with the effects of literary copyright? Consider the novel Les Misérables, written by Hugo. Because he wrote it, the copyright belonged only to him. He did not have to fear that some stranger could sue him for copyright infringement and win. That was impossible, because copyright covers only the details of a work of authorship, and only restricts copying. Hugo had not copied Les Misérables, so he was not in danger. Patents work differently. They cover ideas - each patent is a monopoly on practising some idea, which is described in the patent itself. Here's one example of a hypothetical literary patent: Claim 1: a communication process that represents, in the mind of a reader, the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and becomes bitter towards society and humankind. Claim 2: a communication process according to claim 1, wherein said character subsequently finds moral redemption through the kindness of another. Claim 3: a communication process according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said character changes his name during the story. If such a patent had existed in 1862 when Les Misérables was published, the novel would have infringed all three claims - all these things happened to Jean Valjean in the novel. Hugo could have been sued, and would have lost. The novel could have been prohibited - in effect, censored - by the patent holder. Now consider this hypothetical literary patent: Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and subsequently changes his name. Les Misérables would have infringed that patent too, because this description too fits the life story of Jean Valjean. And here's another hypothetical patent: Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who finds moral redemption and then changes his name. Jean Valjean would have infringed this patent too. These three patents would all cover the story of one character in a novel. They overlap, but they do not precisely duplicate each other, so they could all be valid simultaneously; all three patent holders could have sued Victor Hugo. Any one of them could have prohibited publication of Les Misérables. Other aspects of Les Misérables could also have run afoul of patents. For instance, there could have been a patent on a fictionalized portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo, or a patent on using Parisian slang in fiction. Two more lawsuits. In fact, there is no limit to the number of different patents that might have been applicable for suing the author of a work such as Les Misérables. All the patent holders would say they deserved a reward for the literary progress that their patented ideas represent, but these obstacles would not promote progress in literature, they would only obstruct it. This analogy can help non-programmers see what software patents do. Software patents cover features, such as defining abbreviations in a word processor, or natural order recalculation in a spreadsheet. Patents cover algorithms that programs need to use. Patents cover aspects of file formats, such as Microsoft's new formats for Word files. MPEG 2 video format is covered by 39 different US patents. Just as one novel could infringe many different literary patents at once, one program can infringe many different patents at once. It is so much work to identify all the patents infringed by a large program that only one such study has been done. A 2004 study of Linux, the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, found it infringed 283 different US software patents. That is to say, each of these 283 different patents covers some computational process found somewhere in the thousands of pages of source code of Linux. That's why software patents act like landmines for software developers. And for software users, since the users can be sued too. Treacherous computing is a plan to change the design of future PCs so that they will obey software developers instead of you. From the purpetrators' point of view, it is "trusted", so they call it "trusted computing"; from the user's point of view, it is treacherous. Which name you call it expresses whose side you're on. The new XBox is a preview--it is designed to prevent the user from installing any software without getting Microsoft's authorization. Here's more explaanation from my essay, 'Can you trust your computer': http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html The technical idea underlying treacherous computing is that the computer includes a digital encryption and signature device, and the keys are kept secret from you. Proprietary programs will use this device to control which other programs you can run, which documents or data you can access, and what programs you can pass them to. These programs will continually download new authorization rules through the Internet, and impose those rules automatically on your work. If you don't allow your computer to obtain the new rules periodically from the Internet, some capabilities will automatically cease to function. Programs that use treacherous computing will continually download new authorization rules through the Internet, and impose those rules automatically on your work. If Microsoft, or the US government, does not like what you said in a document you wrote, they could post new instructions telling all computers to refuse to let anyone read that document. Each computer would obey when it downloads the new instructions. Your writing would be subject to 1984-style retroactive erasure. You might be unable to read it yourself. Treacherous computing puts the existence of free operating systems and free applications at risk, because you may not be able to run them at all. Some versions of treacherous computing would require the operating system to be specifically authorized by a particular company. Free operating systems could not be installed. Some versions of treacherous computing would require every program to be specifically authorized by the operating system developer. You could not run free applications on such a system. If you did figure out how, and told someone, that could be a crime. ZNet has begun to explore the possibility of converting to free software. If you would like to help in this effort, please go to the Free ZNet Project forums, register, and introduce yourself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

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Convergence of movements to fight IPRs on information
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

http://www.grain.org/convergence/ Convergence of movements to fight IPRs on information GRAIN has recently been taking an interest in what we have been calling ‘convergence’: the ways in which people are resisting the push for monopoly rights over information in different sectors. In this time of unprecendented centralisation of power and control, resistance is building on many fronts. We couldn’t help wondering if our various struggles might be more effective if we found some common ground.

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Top 10 directories eating up your hard-disk space
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

Interesting mail: From: Sukrit D <sukritd(a)gmail.com> On the PondyLUG: p_lug(a)yahoogroups.com Message of the day Find out top 10 directories eating up your disk space: du -cksh * | sort -rn | head -10 JOIN THE PONDICHERRY LUG http://groups.yahoo.com/group/p_lug -- ------------------------------------------------------------- | India Linux Users' Group, Goa | | Join the friendly user group | | Mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/join | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce | | http://www.iosn.net/country/india/organizations/ilug-goa/ | ------------------------------------------------------------- , , / \ .-. * SOFTWARE ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) (. .) * FREEDOM `-_---' `---_-' / V \ * SHARING `--|o` 'o|--' // \\ \ ` / /( )\ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ): :( '.^^_^^.' SHARE IT EQUITABLY :o_o: \_/ \_/ "-"

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Free Software as a Social Movement | Znet Interview with rms
by Anivar Aravind 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

An Interesting Interview with RMS on Free Software as a social movement http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=9350 Also slashdoted at http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/20/0356217.shtml?tid=117&tid=185 Anivar Aravind -- Knowledge is power... share it equitably! http://www.gnu.org

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Free Software Demo at IFFK
by V. Sasi Kumar 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

On December 15, we did a short demonstration of Free Software related to media at the International Film Festival of Kerala. We showed Blender, Audacity, Kino, Adore, etc., although we could not really demonstrate all features of the applications since we did not have anyone who was experienced in using them. However, Blender and Adore attracted some attention and a few professionals talked to us after the demo. I understand that a couple of other people collected our contact details from the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (organisers of the Festival) later. We had put up a few posters at the major venue (Kairali-Sree theatre complex) earlier. IFFK is considered as one of the top ten Film Festivals in the world, and we are happy that we could get an entry there. We hope to plan and conduct similar demonstrations in the coming years. A report on the demo with a couple of photographs will be put up on our web page soon. -- V. Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf(a)gmail.com> Free Software Foundation of India

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FSF Delhi
by Arun M 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

Dear friends, In order to bring together friends of FSF India in Delhi we are creating a new mailing list. If you are from Delhi or interested in FSF India activities in Delhi join our new mailing list. http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsf-delhi regards arun.

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Re Re: [Fsf-friends] What
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

>That above URL is a trifle misleading since searching for domains that >contain Microsoft would not be a proper indication of the >representation >http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://microsoft.com would >give an idea of what is going on with the MSFT site. The intention was not to look at what MS does at its HQs in Redmond, but to reveal the OS powered by the servers with a .microsoft.com ending - as the searchdns.netcraft.com site advises. >> Perhaps Arun could bring this to the notice of the newly baptised >>(AKG)Congress-men also. >Sometimes putting across an accurate collection of facts would have >more battering power than a mish-mash collation. >I am not being a nitpicker - but off the cuff responses do seem to >troll out mail threads. That was a remark on an episode which continues (and will continue) to hog the media, here, downunder in Kerala. For other fellow Indians, this does not convey anything. Bhule jaan Shankar dada. CK Raju Thrissur

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What's the site that running....
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

After having heavily publicized "breakfast" sessions with media in India, Bill Gates should take some time off post dinner to see the results that netcraft survey brings out. <a href ="http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host=microsoft&position=limited&lookup=Wait..">Netcraft on Microsoft portals</a> Perhaps Arun could bring this to the notice of the newly baptised (AKG)Congress-men also. Cheers, CK Raju, Thrissur

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