Salut Jeffrey! =) On 9/22/06, Jeffrey Ian Dy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I am happy to read all the comments so far made and as one of the lead writers / researcher of the bill, I am actually surprised to hear some comments actually embodies Microsoft's arguments. Let me therefore answer some of them.
While I am definitely NOT a Microsoft junkie (see the archives for some intense Microsoft bashing! :P) I seem to take it that your office are pushing this bill exactly because there's a Microsoft to fight against. I don't find this exactly admirable. The point of FOSS is not about having a prejudice against any single entity, whether be it the giant corporate monopoly of IT or whatnot. To paraphrase RMS, the point of FOSS is for us Filipinos to be able to use a computer in `complete freedom.' Now, he (RMS) does not exactly define what `complete freedom' is, but he gives us only the Four Freedoms (by themselves paraphrases from Roosevelt's) as the guidelines for _free_ software. These freedoms by themselves, however, _do not_ provide the guidelines of using a computer in complete freedom; they are not even offered as a definition to it at all. What, then, is this `complete freedom'? IANAL, but I surmise that for all of us (including the government, as a legal person) this complete freedom comes from our own Bill of Rights; and while that Bill also provides some restrictions (have you seen a Right to Kill Other People Freely in it lately :P) what it effectively says is that we are free to do and to choose our bidding, subject to Philippine law and regulations. Without waxing philosophical about it, I am just as free as you are to think aloud that GMA is not a most lovable President (or, as the faux Japanese joke from the old years goes, "robbable,") or when Dean thinks that this bill is waxing Nazism, despite Dido's invocation of Godwin's Law. That is, `complete freedom' begins from choice. (Now, some of you may naysay and tell me `its from causality, stupid!' and echo the Merovingian, but I won't delve into that here ;) Now, I understand that, like what Rage said, there is the matter of policy; and policy, as it is, is simply that which regulates our own behaviors so that we as Filipinos can live with each other in relative peace and community. Policy, however, is not a means to rob choice; it ought to rather allow us to focus our energies on discerning what choice would be the better one for us. Therefore, policy should complement our freedom. The point I am trying to make here is that despite what this FOSS bill will set as policy, it should serve to remind us of what we, as a people, can do with FOSS, as well as what we _cannot_ do with it. Again, the point of FOSS is for use to use a computer in complete freedom; thus, it should come as no surprise to us that it also includes the freedom of choosing `shackled' software, however anal it may seem to us. Thus, I am keen to think to let the FOSS bill be a choice for the people and the government to get out of the shackles, but let it be just as it is: a choice. Why? Because it is not an easy choice as it seems. For some, perhaps, yes, but many do not have even the luxury of choice (government offices are the prime example.) Give them choice, give them a way out, but let them give themselves time and space to pack things up and move on. So, I think it would be better for this bill to focus on the more constructive approaches to FOSS, rather than be the demolition machine of Bayan Muna against Microsoft. While the battle of FOSS is indeed political, its very essence is not so pompous: it is the exercise of peace and community. Anyhow, there is much more fun to see when you can work on building a nation, rather than destroying it inch by inch. :P Now set your thoughts on that for my birthday :) Cheers, Zakame -- Zak B. Elep || http://zakame.spunge.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] || [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
