Fsf-friends August 2006

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

35 participants
38 discussions

Press Release: India should opposse DRM: Richard Stallman

by Anivar Aravind

India should opposse DRM: Richard Stallman India should not enact a Digital Rights Management (DRM) law, Dr. Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Movement and the GNU Project said. He was speaking at the Fourth International Conference on GPL v3 held at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, on August 23rd, 2006. He commented that the people who implement DRM, which he called the "Digital Restrictions Management", should be in prison if the government is really of the people, by the people and for the people. This law actually restricts the freedom of the people. A company that uses the restrictions in producing its DVD will give the format it uses to create the DVD only to a company that promises to protect that restriction. The law has been enacted in the US and the European Union has given a direction in favour of DRM. Now the government of India is contemplating modifying its laws to incorporate DRM. The time given for the public to register their comments on the law was short and was insufficient for anyone to give a comprehensive response. That time itself is now over. It is important that the public take this issue and try to convince the government that what they are planning to do goes against the interests of the people and protects only the interest of the large companies. He went on to say that the Free Software licences like the GNU General Public Licence can do only a little to protect users from these laws. The conference was organised by the Free Software Foundation of India, and the Free Software Users Group, Bangalore, in association with the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, to discuss the draft of the new version of the General Public Licence (GPL), GPL v3. Dr. Stallman explained why a new version became necessary. He said that revisions become necessary when problems with the existing licence became clear, and when new circumstances threatened the freedom that Free Software promised its users. As an example of the new circumstances, he mentioned the DRM law and the example of a program called Tivo. Tivo is a device that records television programmes for the user to watch at another convenient time. This is a combination of software and hardware. The software is based on the GNU/Linux operating system, which is Free Software. All Free Software gives its users the freedom to modify the software to suit their purpose, and thus this software also gives the freedom to its users. But the hardware is designed to reject any software that is not one of the versions that is designed to run on it. Thus, though the user has the freedom to modify the software, it becomes meaningless because then it cannot be used. In other words, though the software is Free, the freedom becomes meaningless. The present GPL is not violated, though the freedom is, in practice, useless. The new version became necessary because of such circumstances. Prof. Eben Moglen, Professor at the Stanford Law School, Legal Advisor to the Free Software Foundation, and one of the important contributors to the new draft, said that protecting the licence from violations is not an easy job, and involves considerable work from a trained advocate. He said that a legal expert will be engaged in India if many violations of the GPL are found here. Referring to the problem related to some circuits used in wireless networking, he said that there has been serious problems from Japan, which has declared that any programmer who releases software for wireless circuits under any licence that makes its source code available, will be arrested next time the person lands in Japan. The conference will continue on 24th August, when two panels will discuss the relevance of Free Software for software businesses and in Education. The draft of GPLv3 can be read at http://gplv3.fsf.org/ and the detailed programme of the conference can be seen at http://gplv3.gnu.org.in/Conference/Schedule. Some photographs of the event are available at -- http://gnu.org.in/gplv3-conf-pics/index.html Anivar Aravind Free Software Foundation of India http://gnu.org.in

17 years, 1 month

Hi all

by kuldip M katatiya

Hi frds this is kuldip your new frd

17 years, 1 month

INVITATION

by Mishi Choudhary

Note: Forwarded message attached -- Original Message -- From: "Mishi Choudhary" <mishi_c(a)rediffmail.com> To: sailaw(a)gmail.com Cc: "mishi_c" <mishi_c(a)rediffmail.com> Subject: INVITATION Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

17 years, 1 month

Re: 3 films for linux advocacy

by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray

Thanks to Shakthi Kannan and Tinku Sampath. We were looking at the possibility of screening the movie in one of our university GLUG meets. It seems that it might now be a reality soon. Cheers, Debarshi -- Don't be humble ... you're not that great. -- Golda Meir

17 years, 1 month

INVITATION

by Mishi Choudhary

17 years, 1 month

INVITATION

by Mishi Choudhary

17 years, 1 month

Aruba Networks bag contract to upgrade Microsoft's wireless LAN

by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;754084996 Cheerio, Debarshi -- Don't be humble ... you're not that great. -- Golda Meir

17 years, 1 month

we need such machines in india

by Kush

To bring the concept of free/open source software to most Indians without fast internet access http://www.freedomtoaster.org/?q=node/72 If south africa can do it so can we. Kush

17 years, 1 month

Re: [Fsf-friends] 3 films for linux advocacy

by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray

> Yes Gaurav... I was the guy who contacted the director. If any want > screening, put a mail to the director. He will respond. Sure. Should I mail to info2(a)revolution-os.com? Regards, Debarshi -- Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea. -- John Ciardi

17 years, 1 month

3 films for linux advocacy

by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray

> http://www.revolution-os.com/index.html What are the terms & conditions for Revolution OS? I have a copy of the movie which I got from my friend. Now I do not know whether he bought it or rented it. Can I distribute my copy or screen it for non-commercial purposes? Regards, Debarshi -- "I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?" -Jean Kerr

17 years, 1 month

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Fsf-friends August 2006