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RE: Free Software Company
- To: "'xsl-list at mulberrytech dot com'" <xsl-list at mulberrytech dot com>
- Subject: RE: Free Software Company
- From: Joshua Allen <joshuaa at microsoft dot com>
- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 02:45:41 -0700
- Cc: "'cvr at md2 dot vsnl dot net dot in'" <cvr at md2 dot vsnl dot net dot in>
- Reply-To: xsl-list at mulberrytech dot com
You must add:
"7. From each developer, according to his ability, to each world citizen
according to his need" for this to truly represent the free developers.
Then I too will join the glorious revolution.
Also off-topic, is radhakrishnan a malayalan name? Evokes the statesman who
annotated my favourite version of the "gita", but I did not expect he was
from Kerala?
Cheers,
-J
--
As always, speaking for myself only
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Radhakrishnan C V [mailto:cvr@md2.vsnl.net.in]
> Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 10:09 PM
> To: xsl-list@mulberrytech.com
> Subject: Free Software Company
>
>
>
> What I am giving below is off topic but relevant to everyone
> associated with free software.
>
> I hope most of you might have heard about Richard M. Stallman
> (RMS) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and the free software
> movement ignited by RMS.
>
> An intense discussion is going on at freedevelopers@topica.com
> for the formation of a Free Software Company entirely owned by
> the free developers world wide (100,000 developers expected) to
> safeguard the moral, social and ethical foundations on which FSF
> was built up, to provide appropriate monetary compensation and
> quality life to a free software developer he deserves in all the
> fairness and to fight the merciless commerce of the proprietary
> software corporates. These being the primary objectives, Tony
> Stanco <TonyStanco@aol.com> (an associate of RMS, who moderates
> the list) describe it in the following way:
>
> 1. Proprietary code is the enemy. It must be destroyed for
> developers and the world to be free. Open source is an ally.
>
> 2. Developers can be paid salaries and/or stock options to work
> on free code without violating the core principles of free
> code.
>
> 3. Mergers and acquisitions of proprietary companies are not
> objectionable in defeating proprietary.
>
> 4. A company of free developers, by free developers, for free
> developers is an acceptable vehicle to achieve the ends of free
> code.
>
> 5. A requirement in the certificate of incorporation that all
> code owned by the company is licensed under GPL or other tying
> to FSF is appropriate to ensure that the core principles of
> free software are observed going forward and to protect from
> slipping back to proprietary.
>
> 6. A democratic, free developer run corporation does not require
> special safeguards to protect ordinary world citizens.
>
> As one of the developing nations, in India or in any developing
> nation, where automation has just started, Free Software Company
> and FSF have plenty of implications.
>
> 1. In the first place, our poor economy cant afford to the fancy
> prices of proprietary software (maybe due to the foriegn
> exchange conversion magic).
>
> 2. Free Software can meet any objective, functionality that is
> claimed by the proprietary.
>
> 3. The huge man power resources generated in each and every
> place of higher academic learning in this country get a
> chance to contribute to the free software movement, while
> he earns a substantially increased income comparable to his
> counterpart in any proprietary corporate, as an employee
> of the proposed company. The discussions tend to provide
> the standard wages in India as in any part of the world.
> That will surely solve the disturbing problems of migration
> in many an Indian family.
>
> 4. There are plenty of requirement for software in this country
> for meeting its target of total automation for which each
> and every government or other agencies stand for today. Free
> software can meet their objectives on sound moral, ethical and
> social foundations than any other proprietary corporate.
>
> A Case Study:
> ------------
>
> The Govt. of Kerala has formed an IT mission to automate the
> 1000 and odd Gram Panchayats (the lowest unit of elected body at
> village level) of this state. It is a massive and aggressive
> project to bring details of all the citizens of this state into
> a huge database, each Panchayat becoming a resource center for
> the government and at the same time act as the information
> exchange medium between the public and the government.
>
> This is an ideal project for the free software movement. The
> government have earmarked around Rs. 800,000 per Panchayat for
> using proprietary software and related development as initial
> investment and Rs. 150,000 as annual recurring expenses. While
> this came as a proposal, the Linux Users and TeX Users Groups
> came forward to negotiate with the government to do the project
> at a cost of Rs. 150,000 per Panchyat as initial expenses and
> rs. 20,000 as recurring expenses.
>
> But we were turned down, just because, we were considered to be
> a group of free thinkers, whom no responsible government can
> rely upon.
>
> Had there been a corporate entity with FSF objectives to compete
> with the proprietary agencies, the public exchecquer would have
> saved millions of rupees, the developers in this or neighbouring
> states would have got employment.
>
> Still the project is not finalized due to the media stir we
> raised and the seminars of users groups wherein the government
> nominees were special invitees. To make matters difficult for
> the government, the Cochin Linux Users Group came up with a
> viable, stable, functional software model which the political
> bureaucracy cannot overlook or deny. The final decision was
> postponed and still lingering.
>
> That means we have not lost the race, the global Free Software
> Company can still fight it out once it is formally incorporated.
> Tens of thousands of projects are in the offing which we all can
> undertake. This is the case in many other countries world wide.
> There are a quite a number of posts in the freedevelopers list
> similar to this from West European countries.
>
> Therefore, if you believe in the non-exploitative future of your
> country and the world at large and if you believe in the objectives
> of free software movement, you are always welcome to make the
> Free Software Company a reality. It requires the developer in
> you, not for free, but for a standard compensation as in any
> other proprietary corporate.
>
> Why don't you subscribe to the discussions by sending a mail to:
>
> freedevelopers-subscribe@topica.com
>
> with a word `subscribe' in the subject line?
>
> You are not alone, but you are going to meet/associate with some
> of the greatest minds of this era in this movement. And
> remember, Free Software Company is going to be the greatest
> event in the history of Internet and every country should have its
> fare representation and share.
>
> Comments are welcome.
>
>
> --
> Radhakrishnan
>
>
>
>
>
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