An Opinion :-
One battle at a time -- Concentrate on OEM bundled software only.
Govt. of India is the most inefficient user of money doesn't make sense
to give them another source to waste good money over bad money.
The tax concessions on Commercial Software will hurt free software
sellers as well.
how??
The bureaucrats who do not understand a thing about what is
FLOSS/Freedom/OSS and the like will make a mess.I trust them with that.
Software Industry as a whole FLOSS or Commercial is wary of the big-bad
govt. in India. FLOSS should shun government involvement. They need
FLOSS we don't need them and must not look upto them for anything.
What makes us think that the taxation wouldn't hurt FLOSS as much as the
Software Industry after all FLOSS too needs money ( not only through
donations but also selling GPL software + Bundled Support + Cost of
developing customizations which may again be released as GPL'ed
Software)
Asking the government funds for FLOSS will kill FLOSS,
why ??
i) We do not want some politician's son/daughter would be the
maintainer for India specific FLOSS projects.
ii) We do not want FLOSS project grants to be given away to the
hopelessly inefficient govt. of India Research and Development Centers
and siphoned off from there to I don't know where.
iii) Govt. of India is a collection of vested Interests influenced
by unscrupulous businesses and what not
FLOSS does not have to win by lobbying with governments for undue
advantage but by making the govt. a hands off approach to whatever has
to do with Computers/Internet/Telecom whenever,wherever possible.
See more comments Inline:-
> ***
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> Re: Levy Excise Tax on All Commercial Software Sold in India.
How does the government define Commercial.
FLOSS doesn't mean free as in Beer but Free as in Freedom.
> We, the undersigned, propose the Indian Government levy excise tax on all
> commercial software sold in India. Reasons:
> 1) Commercial software (C.S) is a big cash drain for both the Indian
> government and Indian corporates.
So noble who are we to decide about the best interests of all Indian Corporates and
Government
Give them Freedom to Choose thats where our role ends. They are Free Not
to be Free if they desire so.
> 2) Almost all commercial software are non-free. This means, they do not give
> the end users the freedom i) to use the software for any purpose
A bureaucrat will say NOT TRUE here --
ii) to study
> the source code of the software iii) to make changes and improvements to the
> source code
Again a bureaucrat may point out some big exceptions and source code
available to governments for a popular commercial OS may suffice for
them.
iv) to legally share copies of the software with their neighbours
> and colleagues.
With all the propaganda that has been done by the vested Interests for
IPR this may not gel with a bureaucrat
v) to pass on such freedom to those who further receive the
> software.
This is implied in the above
> 3) these freedoms are important for a developing, poor, country like India,
We are a democratic country not a free country, do not harbor any
illusions (period)
> where every citizen, organization, and state, dreams of harnessing the
> opportunities offered by IT.
One reason for this is because Software Industry(Free + Commercial) has to deal with
minimum amount of govt.than any other industry.
> 4) these freedoms also significantly curtail strong anti-competitive
> behaviour in the software industry.
They will do so without any form of overt Govt. Support as well.
> 5) countries like China are moving away from non-free software to
> freedom-based software. India has no such significant, clearly-defined
> initiative in place for adopting freedom based software.
There is a lot of difference between the two forms of govt. We are
fortunate we are not China.
> 6) in the lack of such a clear initiative, commercial software vendors raise
> the stakes for both their competitors and for freedom based software. this
> further kills innovation in the industry.
Lack of clear Govt. Initiative helps Indian Software Industry grow. Textile Industry
was an industry that
GOI once focused its attention, before which it was so competitive and
showed so much promise that the Japanese decided against competing with
it. The rest is history.
> 7) a large and significant percentage of commercial software is usually sold
> as bundled, OEM software. end-users find they are *forced* to use such
> software, since their requests to buy machines with such software uninstalled
> is usually turned down.
Yes here is the real case of infringement of whatever little freedom we
have, where the end-user is unable to make the informed choice.
> 8) indian customers usually find their *only* option is to buy the computer
> with the bundled software, then carefully disagree the end user license
> agreement (eula) of the bundled software preferably in front of witnesses,
> then contact the OEM software vendor independently and press for a refund.
> this is clearly anti-competitive. and the computer is perceived in cost as
> (hardware+OEM software as One).
How about suggesting a mandatory refund for the cost of un-installing and initiating
recovery from the OEM of the cost of unwanted bundled Software.
That would raise the stakes for the real villains of the piece the OEMs
who have presumptuously decided to make a choice for the end-user about
their Software preferences thus infringing upon their freedom. Why tax
the whole industry for that which will even include the FLOSS compliant
s/w vendors and consultants other harmless beings.
> 9) Commercial software companies are usually quite rich. Not taxing them
> allows them to hoard their wealth even more and give them more implicit power
> to quash their competition in commercial software and in freedom-based
> software
So allow nobody to be rich then, they may quash competition
quash competition by involving govt. !!! NEVER
Alternative : FLOSS must get rich to quash competition
Nothing succeeds like success and attracts more followers than empty
slogans.
> 10) by taxing them, the indian government will immediately have more powers
to waste more money,
to not reform the antiquated discretion/quota/
to subsidize the rich
to allow politicians to siphon off more
.............
> to i) accelerate the adoption of freedom based software.
govt. money will accelerate vested interests greed not adoption of free
s/w.
> ii) fund the development of much-needed indigenous solutions in IT for india
> using freedom-based software (indian language technologies, education
> projects, free and freedom-based education software, more secure and
> transparant software for indian defense industries, lower IT infrastructure
> costs for indian government and businesses, etc.)
FLOSS shouldn't be an dole hungry NGO run by Kurta Pyjama zhola wearing fanatics.
FLOSS should spawn successful companies with sound business plans and
good execution to attract freedom lovers.
> 11) by taxing commercial software and funding several projects in india on
> freedom-based software, the indian government also creates a quantum leap in
> the number of jobs and opportunities available to the indian developer
> community and IT industry, thus creating and sharing more wealth.
Govt. funds will turn the flourishing FLOSS movement into another
Khadi(more likely).
> 12) the adoption of free and freedom-based software allows indian corporates
> to save considerable sums of money towards commercial non-free software,
> where the Return on Investment is loudly questioned. this money can then be
> used for further job-creating opportunities such as expansion of new units of
> industrial manufacturing, factories, etc. shareholders of indian companies
> will also benefit from stronger dividends due to stronger profit margins due
> to the adoption of free and freedom-based software.
Let them have the freedom to adopt free software.
> 13) the already financially-starved education sector in India will gain,
> since the large allocation of funds for software in education can be used
> more productively, even for opening more schools instead.
Come on now -- Let the educational institutions become self-reliant and
autonomous and not on govt. dole.
> 14) finally, as a statement of leadership and values, india must adopt
> freedom-based software that is being proposed to the UNICEF to be declared as
> a world-culture heritage.
The moral leadership doesn't help us, economic strength will.
> We hope the Indian government sincerely considers these suggestions. For more
> information on what is freedom-based software, please check out www.gnu.org.
>
> Bizarre as it sounds, when it comes to software:
> Give us Freedom, or Give Us Taxes.
Let not the Govt. infringe upon our freedom.
> Your Sincerely,
>
> <signatures...>
Yours Sincerely,
Tarun Dua
<More Rants Soon>
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