Quoting aracelipraiz ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > Our (small/medium-sized) company just got a letter from NBI [below]. > I assume it is part of a mass mailing. Did anyone else get it? > It seems the NBI is now the one doing the warning, not BSA > or Microsoft anymore. I wonder how they get company > addresses for their mailing database. > > Anyway, my comment is that a mass mailing like this could have > been a good opportunity to mention the option of free software, > so people would at least get an idea that there is such an > alternative. But there was no such mention. Opportunity lost. > > I wish the FOSS-advocating part of the government (who might > that be: ASTI? DOST?) could influence the police part of the > government to add just one sentence to their anti-piracy > campaigns, mentioning the possibility of using free software. > I guess the commercial software lobby is the only influence > on the police part right now.
Trying to be fair to the National Bureau of Investigation, the very notion of open source software is probably completely unknown to them, so that to them _any_ of it poses a potential bootlegging problem. If you'd like them to understand open source and consider mentioning it, prepare a "white paper" about open source in Philippine business, and send it to them. _However_, if you read Mr. Ragos's letter carefully, everything in it is compatible with open source. He says "software copyright is infringed whenever a company uses or reproduces software without a license from the affected software company". Open source fits perfectly into that: You receive a licence with it, that explicitly grants the user the right to get and redistribute it, subject to obligations and restrictions. NBI _might_ even be fully aware of open source and even like and favour it -- and merely have the attitude that since it doesn't pose a law-enforcement problem, it needn't be addressed in their "piracy" letter. And, much as it would be nice if they gave free publicity to open source, it's really not their job. -- Cheers, "He who hesitates is frost." Rick Moen -- Innuit proverb [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
