2009/9/26 Krishnakant krmane@gmail.com:
I think the analysis is pritty good but the words used are wrong. We can't say "americans ". RMS is An American and so are many free software developers, wellwishers and promoters. So while it is true that some organisations like M$ might be used by the american government for their bennifit against many countries, it is not proper to generalise about this.
As Prabir pointed out:
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: prabir prabirp@gmail.com Date: 2009/9/26 Subject: Re: [fosscomm] Free software best suited for UI card project To: Indian FOSS Community Network list network@lists.fosscom.in
Why are you equating Microsoft = Americans/American Government ?
RMS is an American, so is EMS and so is Linus (at least these days) and so are all the staff of FSF Boston and so are countless hackers , so are they all part of the 'American sabotage'. ?
There is a simple distinction between Americans as people and American companies. There is also a distinction of developing proprietary software in which any back door as a security risk can be kept and free and open source software, where such back doors would be immediately known. Any American company (also Chinese, British or from any other country) has to observe the laws of the home country. The US Government has restricted the 'strength' of cryptography which can be sent out of the country.. The restrictions have not been removed (in 2007, it is still illegal to export cryptographic software using key lengths greater than 64-bits without authorization from the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_size). This allows the US Government agencies to crack encryption systems and is the stated reason by the US Government for restricting the strength of encryption software. This restriction of course applies to all US companies and not M$ alone. This problem is well known and certain defense related systems do not use Windows for this reason in many countries including India. In general, I would oppose the UID scheme for various reasons. But M$'s involvement in such a project is doubly dangerous and is not the same as Americans working on free software. Prabir