[Ilugc] ILUGC - Should'nt the name should change
- From: vijaykumar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Vijay Kumar Bagavath Singh)
- Date: Sun Jul 18 18:13:37 2004
Suraj wrote:
Sridhar R wrote:
,----
| won't run Yahoo's messenger, real player, winex, nvidia-drivers, etc
`----
then, I guess you dont use google search[1], GIF images and use MP3s
Sridhar said he wouldn't use the above said proprietary software, because using
them is ethically wrong.
Patents are different. A patented feature in a software does not in itself,
make the software ethically illegitimate. Some companies obtain patents so that
they can protect themselves(by cross licensing), from companies whose sole
business is to obtain exclusive rights to patents and then threaten to sue.
It's OK, if Google adopts the no-first-use-policy. For more information, check
out
http://gnu.fyxm.net/philosophy/amazon-rms-tim.html
BTW, GIFs are now patent free.
http://burnallgifs.org/
When you distribute audio files you might want to use OGG rather than MP3,
because there are people on this planet who cannot use free software to play
your audio files. And it is NOT ethically wrong to use free MP3 tools to decode
or encode MP3 files.
as well. I'm glad if you live clean. I dont, anymore. non-free
software isn't as threatening as illiteracy and other evils. But thats
It is true that non-free software is not the most threatening social evil, but
that does not mean that you can under estimate the importance of software
freedom. It is not that you find out the top most social evil and then
everybody works against it. There are lots of social evils and everyone
fighting against each one of them, will have to adopt the best possible method
to fight against them. And with respect to software freedom, the free software
movement is doing a great job.
We take a lot of things for granted. Do you think the GNU project and the
GNU/Linux system would have been possible without a dedication to freedom?
Below is an excerpt from "Free as in Freedom":
"During the late 1980s, when Stallman was putting in 70- and 80-hour work weeks
writing the first free software tools and programs for the GNU Project, the
pain in Stallman's hands became so unbearable that he had to hire a typist.
Today, Stallman relies on a keyboard whose keys require less pressure than a
typical computer keyboard."
Stallman's struggle is just one example of the hundreds of freedom fighters in
the free software community, who have made software freedom a reality. You can
also take Anand Babu for example, the way he fought Apple in the Playfair issue.
If it took this much pain and effort to give software users freedom, it will
take even more to maintain it. With SCO, Microsoft, Apple and others
increasingly attacking our community, the awareness of software freedom and the
ability to resist the temptation to use non-free software is becoming more and
more important. If we don't talk about freedom, we will lose it even before we
realise it.
Vijay
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