Fsf-friends February 2005

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

35 participants
66 discussions

To open software within three years
by Manjush G.Menon 26 Sep '05

26 Sep '05

Original Message ----- From: "IT@School" <itschool(a)asianetindia.com> To: <manjushmenon(a)hotmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 5:08 PM Subject: Reply > Mr.Manjush G. Menon > We are not giving to depend totally on Ms. Products. Rather MS > Office is taught along with open office and Windows along with Linux > from this year. Arranging the resource persons for training an open > software, making available the software, the maintenance of a help desk > etc. are logistical issues which could not be immediately undertaken. > We plan switch out to open software within three years. > Executive Director > ---- Original Message ----- From: Manjush G. Menon To: itschool(a)asianetindia.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 5:46 PM Subject: Respected sir, From Manjush G. Menon, Sr.Programmer, Sofker Solutions Pvt Ltd, Kochi-18. To The Executive Director, 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project, SCERT Buildings, Poojapura, Thiruvananthapuram-12. Respected sir, SUB: In protest against the inclusion of products from multinational companies in the syllabus of 'IT @ SCHOOL' It's a very dissappointing fact that when the whole world is moving towards Free software, we at kerala are going behind a major MNC - Microsoft. I hereby register my protest in such an act from 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project team. Breaking of prototypes will definetly help us in finding economical and high quality products for our future generation. For students and programmers, the GNU Linux contains 'GNU Compiler Collections' which includes C, C++, FORTRAN, PERL, TCL etc. Also, for DTP and other publishing purposes, it includes GNU Office utilities like Abi-Word, gedit, and other worksheet utilities, all these with a nominal cost of Rs 700-800/-. The software as it is, is free and the cost is accounted towards the media (CD + Documentation) included. By this letter, I urge you to take this matter seriously and suggest necessary modifications in the action plan of 'IT @ SCHOOL' project. Wishing you all the best and wishing all 'Students @ SCHOOL' a bright future, Thanking you, Yours faithfully Manjush G. Menon. ______________________________________________________ Check out all the latest outrageous email attachments on the Outrageous Email Chart! - http://viral.lycos.co.uk

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Audio of RMS Talks
by Bharathi Subramanian 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

Hello All, In the last visit, RMS went different places in India and He covered different topics in his speech. I am planning to collect all of them in a CD. Presently I am having following audio tracks with me:- 1) Danger of Software Patents @ IIT Madras. 2) Free Software Movement @ REC Trichy (Thanks to Vijaykumar) If you have any audio track, Kindly send it to me in CD/Tape/WebLink. Bye :) -- Bharathi S

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About the Free Software Directory
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/entry-20050212.html One of our most important projects is the Free Software Directory. by Janet Casey To make a donation supporting the Free Software Directory and other FSF projects, please visit donate.fsf.org. The Free Software Directory is a project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It catalogs useful free software that runs under free operating systems, particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. The Directory maintainer verifies the license for every package in the directory by opening each package and checking the license of each source code file. Almost 90% of the packages included are under the GPL or LGPL, but any package under a license we consider acceptably free (see this list), that runs on a free OS, and that does not depend on non-free software can be included. The Directory has grown enormously since its inception in late 1999. It now has almost 3,300 packages, each one individually checked as described above. The scope of the Directory has also broadened: the original template for a Directory entry had 30 possible fields; the current template has 47. Licensing issues with Qt and PHP4 have been resolved, so packages that use Qt or are written in PHP4 are now included. Originally, almost all packages had command line interfaces; now Web-based and GUI packages account for roughly a third of the Directory. The Directory accounts for between 40 and 45% of the traffic on the FSF's Web site; in a recent five day period, it had almost 2.5 million total hits. THE DIRECTORY IS AT: http://directory.fsf.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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The Free Software Foundation's Campaign for Free BIOS
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html Campaign for Free BIOS Chips and Motherboards that support LinuxBIOS The Free Software Foundation's Campaign for Free BIOS In 1984 the GNU Project set out to make it possible to operate a computer in freedom--to operate it without any non-free software that would deny the user's freedom At the time, the obstacle to this was simply the operating system. A computer won't run without an operating system, but all the modern operating systems of 1983 were proprietary, user-subjugating software. There was no way to use modern computers in freedom. We set out to change the situation by developing a free software operating system, called GNU. When the kernel Linux became free software in 1992, it filled the last gap in GNU. The combined GNU/Linux operating system achieved our goal: you could install it in a bare PC, and run the computer without any installed non-free software. Strictly speaking, there was a non-free program in that computer: the BIOS. But that was impossible to replace, and by the same token, it didn't count. The BIOS was impossible to replace because it was stored in ROM: the only way to to put in a different BIOS was by replacing part of the hardware. In effect, the BIOS was itself hardware--and therefore didn't really count as software. It was like the program that (we can suppose) exists in the computer that (we can suppose) runs your watch or your microwave oven: since you can't install software on it, it may as well be circuits, not a computer at all. The ethical issues of free software arise because users obtain programs and install them in computers; they don't really apply to hidden embedded computers, or the BIOS burned in a ROM, or the microcode inside a processor chip, or the firmware that is wired into a processor in an I/O device. In aspects that relate to their design, those things are software; but as regards copying and modification, they may as well be hardware. The BIOS in ROM was, indeed, not a problem. Since that time, the situation has changed. Today the BIOS is no longer burned in ROM; it is stored in nonvolatile writable memory that users can rewrite. Today the BIOS sits square on the edge of the line. It comes prewritten in our computers, and normally we never install another. So far, that is just barely enough to excuse treating it as hardware. But once in a while the manufacturer suggests installing another BIOS, which is available only as an executable. This, clearly, is installing a non-free program--it is just as bad as installing Microsoft Windows, or Adobe Photoshop, or Sun's Java Platform. As the unethical practice of installing another BIOS executable becomes common, the version delivered inside the computer starts to raise an ethical problem issue as well. The way to solve the problem is to run a free BIOS. And our community has developed free BIOSes--for instance, LinuxBIOS, which is a modified version of the kernel, Linux. However, few computers can run them. Whereas "PC clones" were and are quite similar, and fully-documented as regards what the kernel and user-space programs need to know, the commands that the BIOS must execute in order to initialize the machine are varied, and in most cases secret. How to install a new BIOS is also secret on many machines. And so far, most manufacturers have not given us the necessary cooperation of providing these specifications. Some desktop machines can run a free BIOS, but we don't know of any laptop that can do so. The FSF uses laptops donated by IBM over the past few years. This was one among several ways IBM cooperated with the GNU Project. But the cooperation is incomplete: when I asked for the specifications necessary to make LinuxBIOS run on these laptops, IBM refused--citing, as the reason, the enforcement of "trusted computing" http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html Treacherous computing is, itself, an attack on our freedom; it is also, it seems, a motivation to obstruct our freedom in other ways. Not all of our community perceives the non-free BIOS as an acute problem. Much of our community supports the open source philosophy, which says that the issue at stake is choosing a development model that produces powerful, reliable software. The open source philosophy doesn't say that "closed source" software is unethical, only that it is likely not to be as reliable. People who hold those views might care about the loss of freedom imposed by a non-free BIOS, because in their philosophy, freedom is not the issue. For us in the free software movement, freedom is the main issue; we have to solve this problem, whether they help or not. How You Can Help Since requests for manufacturers' cooperation have not solved the problem, another approach is needed. Now we are asking you to help. For instance, simply installing a new BIOS in the machine is a substantial challenge. Most manufacturers don't publish the information on how to do this. If you can figure this out for some recent model, especially a laptop, that would be a substantial contribution. Cooperation from the manufacturers would make that work unnecessary. However, to gain cooperation we need to press for it. The most uncooperative company is Intel, which has started a sham "open source" BIOS project. The software consists of all the unimportant parts of of a BIOS, without the hard parts. It won't run, and doesn't bring us any closer to a BIOS that does run. It is just a distraction. By contrast, AMD cooperates pretty well. You can help our campaign by buying AMD CPU chips and not buying Intel, and by publishing statements about what you're doing. Likewise, buy motherboards that support free BIOS. See http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html for information on which companies cooperate and which models and motherboards are supported. When you do this, tell your friends and your coworkers. And please tell us, too--please write to bios(a)gnu.org to tell us that you have chosen what to buy because it supports a free BIOS. You can also help our campaign by writing to manufacturers such as Intel, saying they ought to cooperate with a fully free BIOS. Calm but strong disapproval, coupled with stating an intention to take action accordingly, is more effective than venting rage. Please send a copy of your message to bios(a)gnu.org, so we can monitor the support for this campaign. The more mail they get, the more effect, so please do add your voice to ours. We would like to offer positive inducements as well as pressure. Our idea is to endorse, for a period of time, the first manufacturer in a given category of machine (for instance, laptops) that cooperates fully with free BIOS. To make this offer effective, we would like to collect a long list of people who say they intend to make their choices according to our endorsements. See http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html for how to add your name to this campaign. Once this campaign has built up strength, we will publicize offers of endorsements and begin inviting manufacturers to accept them. We will ask for your help at every step. Created by peterb Last modified 2005-02-28 10:27 AM FORWARDED VIA: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation. --Aristotle

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WordPerfect to Plain Text
by Ramanraj K 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

Is there a free software tool that converts WPF - WordPerfect document binaries into plain text? Thanks, Ramanraj.

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[Fwd: Re: [Ilugc] Theo de Raadt gets FSF Award]
by Ramanraj K 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Ilugc] Theo de Raadt gets FSF Award Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 22:54:00 +0530 (IST) From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <linux(a)frodo.hserus.net> To: topa_007(a)yahoo.com CC: LUG-C linux <ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in> References: <20050227162441.26866.qmail(a)web30203.mail.mud.yahoo.com> > This years award commitee has two well known faces ( > e-mail handles actually :) from our very own ILUGC mailing list. > > srs : Suresh Ramasubramanian and FN : Frederick Noronha The third indian in that list is Raju Mathur, moderator of linux-india-* It should be fun seeing Theo and RMS together on the same stage :) -srs _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email ilugc-request(a)ae.iitm.ac.in with "unsubscribe " in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc

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[Fwd: [Ilugc] Theo de Raadt gets FSF Award]
by Ramanraj K 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Ilugc] Theo de Raadt gets FSF Award Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 08:24:40 -0800 (PST) From: Toufeeq Hussain <topa_007(a)yahoo.com> Reply-To: topa_007(a)yahoo.com To: LUG-C linux <ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in> Hi, Slashdot News for those who might have missed it. Theo de Raadt, creator of OpenBSD and ex-NetBSD hacker has been bestowed the 2004 FSF Award.I know very less of Theo but his work towards OpenSSH and the fight against Wi-Fi Hardware Chipset Manufactures is well known in the FLOSS world. Congratulations to Theo. He joins the ranks of Alan Cox, Larry Wall and Guido van Rossum in the FSF Hall of Fame. This years award commitee has two well known faces ( e-mail handles actually :) from our very own ILUGC mailing list. srs : Suresh Ramasubramanian and FN : Frederick Noronha Good Choice Guys.Keep up the good work. :) Cheers, Toufeeq Hussain ===== ############################################ # mail me @ toufeeq at computer dot org # # running Debian Sarge \w 2.6.10-ck5 # ############################################ _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email ilugc-request(a)ae.iitm.ac.in with "unsubscribe " in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc

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RMS Speech - reg
by Amachu 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

hi, it would be of great help if you could get me a copy of RMS speech... where shall i collect it? regards, Sri Ramadoss M, On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 22:33:26 -0800 (PST), fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in <fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in> wrote: > Send Fsf-friends mailing list submissions to > fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > You can reach the person managing the list at > fsf-friends-owner(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Fsf-friends digest..." > > Today's Topics: > > 1. [Fwd: [meronidavide(a)libero.it: <nettime> A Call to Action in > OASIS]] (Ramanraj K) > 2. Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, Speaks on Open > Source Code Software (Venkat Kumaraswamy) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:22:51 +0530 > From: Ramanraj K <ramanraj.k(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [Fsf-friends] [Fwd: [meronidavide(a)libero.it: <nettime> A > Call to Action in OASIS]] > To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > Message-ID: <421F2DB3.1030807(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [meronidavide(a)libero.it: A Call to Action in OASIS] > Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 06:36:23 +0100 > From: Holger Blasum <holgerlists(a)blasum.net> > To: us-parl(a)ffii.org > > ----- Forwarded message from DAVIDE MERONI ----- > > To: Nettime-l > From: DAVIDE MERONI > Subject: A Call to Action in OASIS > Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 15:54:01 +0100 > Reply-To: DAVIDE MERONI > > A Call to Action in OASIS > > The free and open source software community has long demanded that > industry standards be freely available to all to implement without > patent or other licensing encumbrances. Open standards are essential for > free software and open source to thrive. > > Now OASIS, a major industry consortium that produces e-business and Web > services standards, has adopted a patent policy that threatens to > undermine our development and licensing model. This patent policy > (available, grouped together with other unrelated legal issues, in > http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php) permits > standards to be based upon so-called "reasonable and non-discriminatory" > patent license terms--terms which invariably and unreasonably > discriminate against open source and free software to the point of > prohibiting them entirely. It would lead to the adoption of standards > that cannot be implemented in open source and free software, that cannot > be distributed under our licenses. While the policy includes a provision > for royalty-free standards, it is a secondary option, which will have > little effect if a few OASIS members with patents can ensure it is not > used. The OASIS patent policy will encourage large patent holders to > negotiate private arrangements among themselves, locking out all free > software and open source developers. > > This is not a new issue for us. We fought hard for a royalty-free patent > policy in W3C and encouraged that standards organization to commit its > members to open standards. But some W3C member companies, steadfast > opponents of software freedom, moved their efforts to OASIS. Without > consulting the free software/open source community, they produced a > patent policy designed so that we cannot live with it. > > We ask you to stand with us in opposition to the OASIS patent policy. Do > not implement OASIS standards that aren't open. Demand that OASIS revise > its policies. If you are an OASIS member, do not participate in any > working group that allows encumbered standards that cannot be > implemented in open source and free software. > > Please send email to open(a)rosenlaw.com to indicate your support. We will > forward your comments to the proper authorities at OASIS. > > If we stand united in opposition to this unacceptable patent policy, we > can persuade OASIS to change it. > > /signed/ > Lawrence Rosen > Bruce Perens > Richard Stallman > Lawrence Lessig > Eben Moglen > Marten Mickos > John Weathersby > John Terpstra > Tim O'Reilly > Tony Stanco > Don Marti > Michael Tiemann > Andrew Aitken > Karen Copenhaver > Doug Levin > Dan Ravicher > Larry Augustin > Mitchell Kapor > Russell Nelson > Guido van Rossum > Daniel Quinlan > Murugan Pal > Stuart Cohen > Danese Cooper > Eric Raymond > Mark Webbink > Ken Coar > Doc Searls > Brian Behlendorf > > # distributed via : no commercial use without permission > # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: majordomo(a)bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)bbs.thing.net > > ----- End forwarded message ----- > > -- > Holger Blasum +49-174-7313590 http://demo.ffii.org/ > GnuPG 1024D/ACDFC3B769DC1ED66B47 No Software Patents > > _______________________________________________ > Us-parl mailing list > Us-parl(a)ffii.org > http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/us-parl > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 09:12:54 -0800 (PST) > From: Venkat Kumaraswamy <ellakannada(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: [Fsf-friends] Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, > Speaks on Open Source Code Software > To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > Message-ID: <20050225171254.52497.qmail(a)web51310.mail.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > "In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people." > -- Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, May 28, 2003 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > President ADDRESS AT THE JUDICIAL COLLOQUIUM ON SCIENCE, LAW AND ETHICS AT NATIONAL JUDICIAL ACADEMY, BHOPAL > 19-02-2005 : (Through Video Conference) From New Delhi > > Q.2 Computers and information technology have an important role in reducing the arrears in the courts as well as in helping in other areas. Broadly there are two kinds of software's to do that. Proprietary and Open Source. Which one is better? > > - Justice Yathindra Singh, Justice Allahabad High Court > > PRESIDENT Answer: > > First of all, I would like to clarify that the choice of proprietary vs. open software is driven by the usage and requirements of the user at the operating system level. > > Since, proprietary software is predominantly used at the client level; many users are familiar and comfortable with this. > > However, at the server level mature users choose the software as per their requirement. > > Open source operating system enables the development of language independent software's and also building one's own security algorithms to suit his requirement. > > Indian IT industry is capable of providing a solution for the justice delivery system and its e Governance to the justice administration on top of any proprietary or open source systems. > > What is important here is justice delivery system should be inter-operable system built on top of open standards such as web services. > > Q.3 In case in your opinion open source software is more secure, cheaper and better option or is as good as proprietary software, then > > a. Why all courses in computer science at school level teach only proprietary software? > > b. Why should almost all Govt office continue to have proprietary software > > c. Why should govt. despite saying that they do not have any preference continue to favour proprietary software? > > - Justice Yathindra Singh, Justice Allahabad High Court > > PRESIDENT Answer: > > This has already been answered above. > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.From sbharathi(a)MidasComm.Com Sat Feb 26 10:10:08 2005 > Received: from [203.196.171.91] (helo=info.midascomm.com) > by cc4.tifr.res.in with smtp (Exim 4.34) > id 1D4tkN-0002Bw-6k > for Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in; Sat, 26 Feb 2005 10:10:07 +0530 > Received: from bharathi.midascomm.com ([192.168.14.155]) > by info.midascomm.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j1Q4Sucq028057 > for <Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in>; Sat, 26 Feb 2005 09:58:57 +0530 > Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 10:20:58 +0530 (IST) > From: Bharathi Subramanian <sbharathi(a)MidasComm.Com> > To: FSF-Friends India <Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> > Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0502261004210.29163-100000(a)bharathi.midascomm.com> > MIME-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > X-midascomm.com-MailScanner-Information: Please contact System Administrator > for more information > X-midascomm.com-MailScanner: Found to be clean > X-MailScanner-From: sbharathi(a)midascomm.com > Subject: [Fsf-friends] Audio of RMS Talks > X-BeenThere: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 > Precedence: list > Reply-To: Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> > List-Id: Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends.mm.gnu.org.in> > List-Unsubscribe: <http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends>, > <mailto:fsf-friends-request@mm.gnu.org.in?subject=unsubscribe> > List-Archive: </pipermail> > List-Post: <mailto:fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in> > List-Help: <mailto:fsf-friends-request@mm.gnu.org.in?subject=help> > List-Subscribe: <http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends>, > <mailto:fsf-friends-request@mm.gnu.org.in?subject=subscribe> > > Hello All, > > In the last visit, RMS went different places in India and He covered > different topics in his speech. I am planning to collect all of them > in a CD. > > Presently I am having following audio tracks with me:- > > 1) Danger of Software Patents @ IIT Madras. > 2) Free Software Movement @ REC Trichy (Thanks to Vijaykumar) > > If you have any audio track, Kindly send it to me in CD/Tape/WebLink. > > Bye :) > -- > Bharathi S > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Fsf-friends mailing list > Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > End of Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 22, Issue 28 > ******************************************* > -- Regards, Amachu Mobile: 98416 87639

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Science, law and ethics
by Ramanraj K 26 Feb '05

26 Feb '05

The text of the President of India's *Address at the Judicial Colloquium on Science, Law and Ethics at National Judicial Academy, Bhopal*, is available at: http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/eventslatest1.jsp?id=830 The above also includes a "Question and Answer Session" touching upon free software.

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[Fsf-friends] [Fwd: [meronidavide@libero.it: <nettime> A Call to Action in OASIS]]
by Ramanraj K 25 Feb '05

25 Feb '05

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [meronidavide(a)libero.it: A Call to Action in OASIS] Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 06:36:23 +0100 From: Holger Blasum <holgerlists(a)blasum.net> To: us-parl(a)ffii.org ----- Forwarded message from DAVIDE MERONI ----- To: Nettime-l From: DAVIDE MERONI Subject: A Call to Action in OASIS Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 15:54:01 +0100 Reply-To: DAVIDE MERONI A Call to Action in OASIS The free and open source software community has long demanded that industry standards be freely available to all to implement without patent or other licensing encumbrances. Open standards are essential for free software and open source to thrive. Now OASIS, a major industry consortium that produces e-business and Web services standards, has adopted a patent policy that threatens to undermine our development and licensing model. This patent policy (available, grouped together with other unrelated legal issues, in http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php) permits standards to be based upon so-called "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patent license terms--terms which invariably and unreasonably discriminate against open source and free software to the point of prohibiting them entirely. It would lead to the adoption of standards that cannot be implemented in open source and free software, that cannot be distributed under our licenses. While the policy includes a provision for royalty-free standards, it is a secondary option, which will have little effect if a few OASIS members with patents can ensure it is not used. The OASIS patent policy will encourage large patent holders to negotiate private arrangements among themselves, locking out all free software and open source developers. This is not a new issue for us. We fought hard for a royalty-free patent policy in W3C and encouraged that standards organization to commit its members to open standards. But some W3C member companies, steadfast opponents of software freedom, moved their efforts to OASIS. Without consulting the free software/open source community, they produced a patent policy designed so that we cannot live with it. We ask you to stand with us in opposition to the OASIS patent policy. Do not implement OASIS standards that aren't open. Demand that OASIS revise its policies. If you are an OASIS member, do not participate in any working group that allows encumbered standards that cannot be implemented in open source and free software. Please send email to open(a)rosenlaw.com to indicate your support. We will forward your comments to the proper authorities at OASIS. If we stand united in opposition to this unacceptable patent policy, we can persuade OASIS to change it. /signed/ Lawrence Rosen Bruce Perens Richard Stallman Lawrence Lessig Eben Moglen Marten Mickos John Weathersby John Terpstra Tim O'Reilly Tony Stanco Don Marti Michael Tiemann Andrew Aitken Karen Copenhaver Doug Levin Dan Ravicher Larry Augustin Mitchell Kapor Russell Nelson Guido van Rossum Daniel Quinlan Murugan Pal Stuart Cohen Danese Cooper Eric Raymond Mark Webbink Ken Coar Doc Searls Brian Behlendorf # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo(a)bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)bbs.thing.net ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Holger Blasum +49-174-7313590 http://demo.ffii.org/ GnuPG 1024D/ACDFC3B769DC1ED66B47 No Software Patents _______________________________________________ Us-parl mailing list Us-parl(a)ffii.org http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/us-parl

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Fsf-friends February 2005