[This debate raised by the Bill in Peru may be interesting -- Raju] This is an RFC 1153 digest. (1 message) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0204301559130.23148-100000@moria> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Graham Seaman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ox-en] peruvian law Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 16:16:27 -0400 (EDT) Hi, I translated one of the articles on the Peruvian free software bill http://www.gnu.org.pe/resmseng.html Its a very literal translation, which rather buries the author's nice sense of humour, but it might still be interesting. It's the reply of the main guy proposing the bill to Microsoft, who wrote to him after attending a public forum to discuss it. Nearly all the elements of the reply got included in the latest version of the bill, but theu're explained in much more detail here than in the bill itself. It's a kind of culmination of a series of attempts of creating this kind of law in latin America - after learning from what went right (and wrong) in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. The main conclusion is that it's no use basing such laws on financial costs ('free software is cheap'): you need to be able to argue from the standpoint of freedom, both to achieve anything real if the bill is passed, and to be able to argue effectively against Microsoft. Something that suprised me (I didn't even notice it the first time I read this) is that this argument then turns round and infects the state with gpl-like elements too - eg. the argument that citizens should have the right to read the programs that calculate their tax bills. Unfortunately I guess that means we're not going to get a bill like this in the UK anytime soon :-( Graham _______________________ http://www.oekonux.org/ ------------------------------ End of this Digest ****************** -- Raju Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/ It is the mind that moves _______________________________________________ Fsf-india mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-india