brilliant suggestions. but we have to make the committee eat all these things. By today or as of now they know nothing about the issues raised here. I am trying to coordinate Interaction program to explain the committee about suggestions we will be sending to them.
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Bibek Paudel <[email protected]>wrote: > > The pioneer of the Free Software movement, Richard Stallman's (RMS) > has some suggestions for Nepal's new constitution, communicated over a > series of mails during the last week. I am separating each mail by a > separator like the one below: > ------------------------------------- > > Here are some suggestions. > > > [No patents on software, writing, art; no business method patents] > > No patent-like monopoly shall limit the right to make, and > subsequently to distribute, use, and authorize the use of, literary or > artistic works, or the right to perform activities consisting of > manipulation of information, data or knowledge, or the right to > carry out business methods. > > > [Right of reverse engineering] > > The right of any citizen to study the operation and structure of any > technological product that he owns, and to study nondestructively any > technological product that he is lent, and to publish the knowledge > obtained from such study, shall not be limited by any law, or by any > contract accepted by the citizen without real negotiation, regardless > of where the contract was signed. > > > > [Rejection of the misguided concept of "intellectual property"] > > Copyrights and patents are privileges granted as artificial incentives > for activities expected to promoting progress. > > The state may through legislation increase or decrease the extent of > existing copyright and patent privileges, or future ones, in order to > achieve the best balance between two public interests: promoting > progress, and the public's freedom to use published works and ideas. > > > [Freedom to photograph and record] > > The citizen's right to occasionally make recordings of sights, sounds, > and events, when in a place where the public may freely enter, and to > publish these recordings, shall not be limited by any law, order, > private rule, or contract. > > > (In particular, the copyright on posters or sculptures that appear > in a photo, or music heard playing in a sound recording, cannot > interfere > with publication of the photo or recording.) > > (This has no effect on concerts or movie showings that require buying > a ticket, because those are not places where the public may freely > enter.) > > > [Freedom from unjustified surveillance] > > No person, entity, public agency, or combination of those may use > computing technology to systematically and automatically store beyond > a short time any information about individuals, except when the > individuals are in a place off limits to the public and with > permission of the owner of the place, or when inherently necessary for > dealings those individuals enter into, or pursuant to a court order > detailing the individuals to be surveilled and the type of information > to be stored. > > > [Prohibition of National ID Cards] > > The state shall not issue credentials to individuals except limited to > a specific purpose, and no such credential shall be checked, or its > data requested, for any purpose other than the one for which it was > issued, except pursuant to a specific court order or at the scene of a > crime. > -------------------------- > > Digital Rights Management > > Please do not use the term "Digital Rights Management". > Please call it "Digital Restrictions Management". > > -------------------------- > > Regarding anonymity, I think that the proposed articles to limit > surveillance and prohibit general ID cards will go a long way to do > that. > > If a business or agency can't ask people to show their national ID > cards, it is some trouble to identify everyone, so they probably won't > bother. > > > This quote may be useful, especially since you are so close to Tibet: > > > From Born in Tibet by Chögyam Trungpa, foreword by Marco Pallis > > It is not only such obvious means of intimidation as machine guns and > concentration camps that count; such a petty product of the printing > press as an identity card, by making it easy for the authorities to > keep constant watch on everybody's movements, represents in the long > run a more effective curb on liberty. In Tibet, for instance, the > introduction of such a system by the Chinese Communists, following the > abortive rising of 1959,and its application to food rationing has been > one of the principal means of keeping the whole population in > subjection and compelling them to do the work decreed by their foreign > overlords. > > -------------------------- > > Small changes in these two: > > > [Right of reverse engineering] > > The right of any individual to study the operation and structure of > any technological product that he owns, and to study nondestructively > any technological product that he is lent, and to publish the > knowledge obtained from such study, shall not be limited by any law, > or by any contract accepted by the individual without real > negotiation, regardless of where the contract was signed. > > > [Freedom from unjustified surveillance] > > No person, entity, public agency, or combination of those may use > computing technology to systematically and automatically store beyond > a short time any information about individuals, except when the > individuals are in a place off limits to the public and with > permission of the owner of the place; or when, as and for as long as > - Hide quoted text - > inherently necessary for dealings those individuals enter into; or > pursuant to a court order detailing the individuals to be surveilled > and the type of information to be stored. > > -------------------------- > > Here are more suggested articles for some of the issues you suggested. > > > [Freedom to share published works] > > No law, order, rule or contract shall limit the freedom of individuals > to noncommercially copy and redistribute to other individuals copies > of any literary or artistic work that has been published or otherwise > intentionally made available by its authors to a large number of > people. > > [Freedom to use encryption] > > The right of individuals and organizations to use technical means > to protect the privacy of their communications shall not be limited > by any law, order, rule or contract. > > [Free standards for state-public communication] > > To promote competition in ICT, entities forming part of the state, or > controlled or owned even partially by the state, or engaged in > business that requires a specific license from the state, shall use > exclusively formats that are publicly documented and that everyone is > free to implement, for digital communication with the public, for > digital communication with each other, and for archiving of digital > information. > > (Note that these formats include encryption formats, so this does not > forbid the use of encryption, but requires that the format and the > encryption method be published and thus given careful study. > Encryption experts say you should never trust encryption software > unless the encryption algorithm has been publicly and carefully > studied; otherwise it is likely to contain a subtle but disastrous > weakness.) > > -------------------------- > > The first 8 or so amendments to the US constitution are very good > defenses of human rights. Nepal should consider them too. > > -------------------------- > > Thanks, > Bibek > > > > -- Prabin Gautam Open Source Developer prabin AT prabin DOT net DOT np Mob: +९7७9८4१२5९00१ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ FOSS Nepal mailing list: [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
