On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 11:12 PM, Krishnakant Mane <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tuesday 06 April 2010 08:02 PM, sankarshan wrote: > >> Here's a part that I was unable to comprehend in the original post. If >> the software is installed on the infrastructure of an institute, it is >> generally obtained via a procurement process. Or, in other words, >> there is a document trail that involves a quote, an invoice and, a >> receipt of payment. Are the AICTE officials indicating that even if >> such paper trail is acceptable by authorities that sign-off financial >> transactions, they don't look at these as proof enough ? >> >> >> >> > It is very simple. > If your quotation says that you are "selling " licence copy of a certain > software, it means you are intending to purchase a software per say not any > service. > So it is not that a quotation/ procurement/ receipt is not considered a > proof, what is troubling them is what is being actually purchased. > According to many people FOSS is free so you can't buy it. > Thanks to the mith which is thriving on the concept of free as in free > beer, people don't think foss can be bought and sold. > I and many seniors on this list like Nagarjun have been warning about this > problem time and time again by clearifying the fact that free is for > "freedom " and people must not emphasise a lot of the cost aspect. > Now since many of us have really not been so serious about this, the common > but unfortunate believe about "free of cost " is troubling us now. > People don't want to except that free software can be sold and bought. > Yes we can download FOSS for no cost. but that is just a side effect. > We have to educate the concerned authorities about "free as in freedom ". > I feel it is high time we at least now stop talking much on the "cheep " or > "reduction in TOC" kind of aspects. > > Happy hacking. > Krishnakant. A similar issue had come up a few years ago when the cyber cafes were being regulated. http://osindia.blogspot.com/2007/03/mumbai-police-mandates-usage-of-m-in.html#links My colleague and I met with Ashutosh Dumbare, who headed the cyber cell of the Mumbai Police and explained open source and the GPL license and he was quite receptive. http://osindia.blogspot.com/2007/04/mumbai-cyber-cafe-issue-update.html On the "free" issue, the problem is that we can say whatever we want and people are free to hear whatever they want :-) We say, "free as in freedom" and they hear "free as in free beer." I much prefer terms like "swatantra software" because there is no question of ambiguity and the meaning is clearly conveyed. I will also try to reach out to AICTE through my sources. Is there any particular department that we need to educate? Venky
_______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
