On 9/14/06, Ian Dexter R. Marquez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My take: you can't legislate poverty (suffering, graft, corruption, whatever ills our society) out of existence. The thing is, for FOSS, at least, something is being done. We have someone paying attention to something specific to our needs -- let's take it as it is, work with them on the bill (which, as Rep. Casin~o's staff pointed out, will be watered down anyway -- but that's beside the point), and put the message across.
Of course; its a sheer impossibility to put down laws eradicating $ILL without (a) someone to enforce it, and (b) someone to enforce it to. But, FWIW, it does seem good that someone from the higher-ups of government can spare an arm and a leg in checking out FOSS and on what it has done (and could do) to the Philippine software industry.
The bill when it becomes law will not create artificial demand. It will bring attention to the needs of government -- or the state, if not the nation -- for better alternatives than what is currently being offered.
There is a danger here: if one does `perl -pe 's/FOSS/Proprietary/' on the bill, then unsurprisingly the above claim _will still hold_ true. Why? Because FOSS, just like proprietary software, is still just software. It comes with just as many or fewer strings as proprietary software. And the government, being a legal person, may also execute its right to choose whatever software it needs or wants to use. (As usual, IANAL.) What this bill is proposing is that the government be removed of that right, and to bind it to a SPOT. I won't dispute Section 8 here, but I do strongly hope that it indeed to watered down (purged even) when it goes the Readings.
The legislation should not be seen as an exercise in futility. It should be seen as part of a larger struggle to take away the shackles that bind us to monopolies and their ilks.
As I said earlier, legislation is OK for me; its the legislators themselves that I have a problem with. But, I hope the best... Cheers, Zakame -- Zak B. Elep || http://zakame.spunge.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] || [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1486 7957 454D E529 E4F1 F75E 5787 B1FD FA53 851D _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
