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"NG" == Nagarjuna G nagarjun@gnowledge.org writes:
NG> On Thu, 2004-06-24 at 01:09, Raj Mathur wrote: >> PlayFair and FSF may have won, but India has lost.
NG> It was hosted at a place where both the person and the isp NG> gave the backing. India seemed like lost when the host backed NG> off, for the reason that isp would not support. Both the isp NG> and the host were in a defendable position (lawyers opinion). NG> We needed a courageous person like ab to take to the cause of NG> defending software freedom. In a global fight against NG> software freedom we should not bring in nationalities. BTW the NG> person who is managing it is an Indian with support from an NG> non-indian isp. I dont see anything wrong as long as software NG> freedom is upheld.
This fight was beyond software freedom -- it was (is?) a cry for upholding of fundamental liberties -- the liberty to write software that may impact some corporation's profits, the right to disseminate such software, the right to cryptography, the freedom to use content in a manner that suits the individual as long as it doesn't break any laws.
In that context, the country is important. As far as I can see, US citizens has already yielded up most of these freedoms. Should we (Indians) also accept that? Or should we try to prevent similar restrictions being placed on us?
If the latter, then it is up to organisations such as the FSF and EFF to indemnify an ISP against litigation and have PlayFair hosted in India. If we lose the case, at least we tried, and if we win it's a significant step in the direction of personal freedom.
If an organisation is willing to do the indemnification I'd be glad to support them by (a) donating money and (b) helping locate a service provider who would host the server.
Regards,
- -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur raju@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F It is the mind that moves