http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1136045,00.html
this is a complex issue. "Amnesty believes Microsoft is in violation of a new United Nations Human Rights code for multinationals which says businesses should 'seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights'. China is the world's most aggressive censor of the internet. Websites are banned for using words such as 'Taiwan', 'Tibet', 'democracy', 'dissident' and 'human rights'. Amnesty has recorded dozens of cases of political opponents jailed for circulating material offensive to the Chinese government. " *** meanwhile, last month a few software (adobe photoshop) and hardware devices (HP imaging devices) were found to monitor you if you scan currency notes of a few selected countries. *** this kind of political intervention, where governments start arm-twisting software companies to use and abuse technology for their own agendas among end-users, needs to be intensely discussed. these issues are beginning to emerge, and will grow exponentially, as we move towards digitally-empowered or enabled societies. glimpses from 'the minority report?' or george orwell's 1984? hypothetically, imagine disparate governments in the world figuring out how easy and convenient it is to make software vendors obey these govts, and therefore make their software obey each govt's demands. this may make the adoption of free software (muft and mukt) more widespread. then, it is only a matter of time before some govt or govts declare free software illegal, banned, and furthering dissent. go figure. :-) LL _______________________________________________ ilugd mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
