[Fwd: [eGovINDIA] Keeping Free Software Free] - Fsf-friends

31 Mar 2006


      -------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[eGovINDIA] Keeping Free Software Free
Date: 	Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:31:08 -0800 (PST)
From: 	OSS FOSS ossrti@yahoo.com
Reply-To: 	eGovINDIA@yahoogroups.com
To: 	egov India egovindia@yahoogroups.com, egov gok 
egovgok@yahoogroups.com, ella kavi ellakavi@yahoogroups.com, egov 
Orissa egovorissa@yahoogroups.com
*Keeping Free Software Free*
MARCH 28, 2006
Viewpoint
By Richard Stallman
Next-generation computers are designed to restrict how you use them
    even before you buy them. What can the free software community do?
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060328_903602.htm
In 1989, in a very different world from today's, I wrote the first 
version of the GNU General Public License, a license that gives computer 
users freedom. The GNU GPL, of all the free software licenses, is the 
one that most fully embodies the values and aims of the free software 
movement by ensuring four fundamental freedoms for every user. These are 
freedoms: 1) to run the program as you wish, 2) to study the source code 
and change it to do what you wish, 3) to make and distribute copies when 
you wish, and 4) to distribute modified versions when you wish.
Any license that grants these freedoms is a free software
        license. The GNU GPL goes further -- it protects these freedoms
        for all users of all versions of the program by forbidding
        middlemen from stripping them away. Most components of the
        GNU/Linux operating system, including the Linux component that
        was made free software in 1992, are licensed under GPL Version
        2, released in 1991. Now, with legal advice from Professor Eben
        Moglen at Columbia Law School, I am designing Version 3 of the
        GNU GPL.
GPL v3 must cope with threats to freedom that we couldn't have
        imagined in 1989. The coming generation of computers, and many
        products with increasingly powerful embedded computers, are
        being turned against us by their manufacturers -- before we buy
        them. They're designed to restrict the uses to which we can put
        them.
TRUSTED OR TREACHEROUS?.  First, there was the TiVo. People may
        think of TiVo as a device to record TV programs, but it contains
        a real computer running a GNU/Linux system. As required by the
        GPL, you can get the source code for the system. You can change
        the code, recompile and install it. But once you install a
        changed version, the TiVo won't run at all, because of a special
        mechanism designed to sabotage you. Freedom No. 1, the freedom
        to change the software to do what you wish, has become a sham.
Then came "trusted computing," what I call treacherous
        computing, meaning that companies can "trust" your computer to
        obey them instead of you. It enables network sites to tell which
        program you're running. If you change the program, or write your
        own, they will refuse to talk to you. Once again, freedom No. 1
        becomes lip service.
Microsoft (MSFT <javascript: void showTicker('MSFT')>) has a
        scheme, originally called Palladium, that enables an application
        program to "seal" data so that no other program can gain access
        to it. If Disney (DIS <javascript: void showTicker('DIS')>)
        distributes movies this way, you'll be unable to exercise your
        legal rights of fair use and /de minimis/ use. If an application
        records your data this way, it will be the ultimate in vendor
        lock-in. This too destroys freedom No. 1 -- if modified versions
        of a program cannot access the same data, you can't really
        change the program to do what you wish. Something like Palladium
        is planned for a coming version of Windows.
ROOT OF EVIL.  AACS, the "Advanced Access Content System,"
        promoted by Disney, IBM (IBM <javascript: void
        showTicker('IBM')>), Microsoft (MSFT <javascript: void
        showTicker('MSFT')>), Intel (INTC <javascript: void
        showTicker('INTC')>), Sony (SNE <javascript: void
        showTicker('SNE')>), and others, aims to restrict use of HDTV
        recordings -- and software -- so they can't be used except as
        these companies permit. Sony was caught last year installing a
        "rootkit" into millions of people's computers through CDs and
        not telling them how to remove it.
Sony learned from its mistake: It will now install the "rootkit"
        in your computer before you get it, and you won't be able to
        remove it. This plan explicitly requires devices to be "robust"
        -- meaning you cannot change them. Its implementers will surely
        want to include GPL-covered software, again trampling freedom
        No. 1. This scheme should get "AACSed," and a boycott of HD DVD
        and Blu-ray http://bluraysucks.com/boycott has already been
        announced.
Allowing a few businesses to organize a scheme to deny our
        freedoms for their profit is a failure of government, but so
        far, most of the world's governments, led by the U.S., have
        acted as paid accomplices rather than policemen for these
        schemes. The copyright industry has promulgated its peculiar
        ideas of right and wrong so vigorously that some readers may
        find it hard to entertain the idea that individual freedom can
        trump profits.
SOFTWARE FREEDOM.  Facing these threats to our freedom, what
        should the free software community do? Some say we should give
        in and accept the distribution of our software in ways that
        don't allow modified versions to function, because this will
        make our software more popular. Some refer to free software as
        "open source," that being the catchphrase of an amoral approach
        to the matter which cites powerful and reliable software as the
        highest goal. If we allow companies to use our software to
        restrict us, this "open-source Digital Rights Management (DRM)"
        could help them restrict us more powerfully and consistently.
Those who wield the power could benefit by sharing and improving
        the software they use to do so. We too could read it -- read it
        and weep if we can't make a changed version run. For the goals
        of freedom and community, the goals of the free software
        movement, this concession would amount to failure.
We developed the GNU operating system so that we could control
        our own computers, and use them in freedom. To seek popularity
        for our software by ceding this freedom would defeat that
        purpose. Therefore we have designed Version 3 of the GNU GPL to
        uphold the user's freedom to modify the source code and put
        modified versions to real use.
The debate about the GPL v3 is part of a broader debate about
        DRM vs.your rights. The motive for DRM schemes is to increase
        profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side
        issue when millions of people's freedom is at stake. Desire for
        profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot be justification for
        denying the public control over its technology. Defending
        freedom means thwarting DRM.
First published by BusinessWeek Online. Stallman is the founder
        of the GNU Project, launched in 1984 to develop the free
        software operating system GNU. Verbatim copying and distribution
        of this entire article is permitted worldwide without royalty in
        any medium, provided this notice is preserved
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blab-away for as little as 1¢/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls 
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman2/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39663/*http://voice.yahoo.com 
using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.
SPONSORED LINKS
Open source software 
http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Open+source+software&w1=Open+source+software&w2=India&w3=Communication+technology&w4=Women+empowerment&w5=India+gift&w6=India+tour&c=6&s=122&.sig=t3VwXxAF5O5slIo6rZ1zuA 
    India 
http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=India&w1=Open+source+software&w2=India&w3=Communication+technology&w4=Women+empowerment&w5=India+gift&w6=India+tour&c=6&s=122&.sig=wFWvA3TaRDAh-5jCb8Rvhw 
    Communication technology 
http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Communication+technology&w1=Open+source+software&w2=India&w3=Communication+technology&w4=Women+empowerment&w5=India+gift&w6=India+tour&c=6&s=122&.sig=LECE9jtqMIK4n9xZ_k_v2A
Women empowerment 
http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Women+empowerment&w1=Open+source+software&w2=India&w3=Communication+technology&w4=Women+empowerment&w5=India+gift&w6=India+tour&c=6&s=122&.sig=SLxEhKItz8qyp_-wW0uqcQ 
    India gift 
http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=India+gift&w1=Open+source+software&w2=India&w3=Communication+technology&w4=Women+empowerment&w5=India+gift&w6=India+tour&c=6&s=122&.sig=-WDnhSc8vI4luYFvL_rlig 
    India tour 
http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=India+tour&w1=Open+source+software&w2=India&w3=Communication+technology&w4=Women+empowerment&w5=India+gift&w6=India+tour&c=6&s=122&.sig=wULgAsCCz9Gq2_fYfHFjlA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
*  Visit your group "eGovINDIA
      http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eGovINDIA" on the web.
*  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
       eGovINDIA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
      mailto:eGovINDIA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe
*  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
      Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------