The mails I had posted in response to the statement by the FSF-I Board on the FSF-friends and FSUG-Bangalore mailing lists have been vandalised. See http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsug-bangalore/2008-November/002447.html http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2008-November/005788.html
I am CC'ing all the currently listed list admins and RMS. To whoever did this: You cannot silence our voices by simply deleting mail content. I am resending my response.
Greetings,
<quote> * *
*9. Are the members of the Director Board of FSF India elected? *
<snip> As mentioned in the answer to an earlier question, FSF India is not a mass movement and is not a democratic organisation. The purpose of FSF India, as of FSF, is to provide guidance to the Free Software movement. This purpose could be easily defeated if it is made into an elected body.
</quote> India is considered one of the biggest democracies in the world and the Free Software Movement is for the democratisation of technology and knowledge. However, the namesake of FSF in India ie., FSF-India, whose role is to lead the Free Software Movement has clearly defined itself as undemocratic.
Let us take things objectively to analyse, debate and come to some sort of an understanding.
Democracy, transparency and openness are considered the pillars of the free software movement. We talk about free(or open) standards, free knowledge, etc.. and then we hear "Democracy? That is only for theory." How can one ensure democratisation of knowledge if one is undemocratic?
The Board of FSF-I may have to (re)read the works of Eben Moglen and actually implement it in their functioning. I think the following quote of Eben Moglen is important in this context. From http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Transcript_of_The_System_Of_Ownership_Of_Ideas
"Haven't you heard," we say, "The era of presidents for life is over. We are holding elections, here. Here, we made this, its called democracy. Would you like some? Take it, its free."
In solidarity with the Free Software Movement, Vikram Vincent
There are some more instances. See http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsug-bangalore/2008-November/002177.html http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2008-November/005675.html and compare with the actual text here. Anybody can independently verify.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Vikram Vincent vincentvikram@gmail.com Date: 2008/11/18 Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] a clarification needed To: Principal Support List of FSF-India fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in Cc: Free Software Users Group - Bangalore fsug-bangalore@mm.gnu.org.in
2008/11/18 Arun M arun@gnu.org.in
Why is it that FSF-I has no public opinion about anything important? Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore... We want to know the reason for FSF-I not being a part of the conference.
From the Vision of FSF-I http://www.gnu.org.in/why-we-exist the only work of
FSF-I is to be a not-for-profit company with certain goals which are not mass movement oriented. This is not useful to the Free Software Movement which is a mass movement. Is FSF-I democratic in its constitution? Meaning, are the members elected or do company policies apply? If FSF-I continues in this manner then why do we need any FSF-I? We need an organisation which can guide this Movement and not simply to give verdict/blessings that "this/you is/are right", "that/you is/are wrong",... We want to know how FSF-I intends to proceed in the future. Does it plan to be a participant in the Movement? We want it to be democratic and representative of the Movement in all senses and not simply through talk.
On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 11:13 PM, Vikram Vincent vincentvikram@gmail.com wrote:
Could it be because of html code filtering? It is very unlikely that any human being will do this? Vikram, can you confirm if the original post is text or html?
Were the posts first went well, and later did you observe them being removed.
Nagarjuna
2008/11/29 Vikram Vincent vincentvikram@gmail.com:
Please rest assured, there is no conspiracy involved. All the email postings to this mailing list are completely unmoderated, and your views delivered to the list subscribers the moment mailman receives it. So, a vandal would achieve little by editing web archives.
The post you mentioned is preserved in the list mbox intact the way you sent to the list. If mailman(or its archiver) is acting up across several other lists hosted on this server, we'll get that fixed.
Meanwhile, may i advice you to NOT use funky text format while sending emails to the list? Pipermail archiver has to get rid of the fancy html formatting while generating web archives.
Anurag
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Anurag -
Nagarjuna G. -
Vikram Vincent