> At least in the US, I'm not so sure that the general public sees the > importance or usefulness of things such as access to source code or > the selection of well-documented, free/open file formats. For many > (all?) of us on this list, we may personally feel as though such > policies are self-evident, but that is not the case for so many of our > neighbors in meatspace.
In Italy too, and this is a problem. First of all, we have to let people know WHY we need free software and free formats; this is our most important "fight". > One of the reasons why I'm working hard on Document Freedom Day this > year (apologies for this shameless plug) is because I think that we've > got to start with small tidbits such as the intrinsic, personal > benefits of having access to one's own data, and build upon that > starting point as the basis for greater education and acceptance. > http://documentfreedom.org/ This is the point: having access to our own data is not a "benefit", it's a RIGHT. We are in a critical situation, because all big companies are trying to steal users' data using as argument that a practical advantage is more important than freedom. > Indubitably, but that requires education! We need packs of information > we can hand to teachers, educators, homeschoolers, and retirees. The > material needs to be crisp, clean, intelligent, have a > theme/uniformity, and use accessible language. As I said, the question is that people don't care about their rights. In this list, we talk about freedom, copyright law, copyleft; but what about "normal" people? ----------------------------- Giuseppe Molica
