RE: [ox-en] Microsoft + Bush v Peru
- From: "admin" <admin technosandiego.com>
- Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 13:01:29 -0700
Graham,
All relevant - keep it up!
Asked a friend about the Spanish quote;
"i think this means 'this statement must have been entered a
long time ago'"
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-list-en oekonux.org [owner-list-en oekonux.org] On
Behalf Of Graham Seaman
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 3:37 PM
To: list-en oekonux.org
Subject: Re: [ox-en] Microsoft + Bush v Peru
One of the people involved in this thing sent this indirectly to
Barrapunto (spanish slashdot, http://www.barrapunto.com)
(I hope at least someone on this list feels all this is relevant; I did
try putting it on Slashdot, but it didn't get approved).
[start (loose) translation] 'This is a commentary which one of the
activists, who was actually in the congress supporting the free software
bill sent to me yesterday when I mentioned the Barrapunto article: "I've
always been fairly discreet about this topic, because we really only
wanted to advance when we were sure of things and not to create false
hopes in the community. I've been very directly involved with the bill
in
recent months, so much so that I've had to connect directly with many
people in the government; well, not just me but also many linux friends
and activists who believe that a free software law would be incredibly
beneficial for such a poor (speaking in economic and technical terms)
nation as Peru. I had the chance to explain and defend the law in the
national parliament, and I'm very happy to say that there was never a
point when the people who opposed the law had a single conving argument
against it. In this part of the dialogue the arguments presented are
extremely solid, and it's very clear that free software is better. As
they couldn't beat us on technical grounds, all this had now taken on
political colouring, and that's where Microsoft has pushed its campaign.
lobbying and persuading peruvian politicans to drop the bill; what you
saw
on barrapunto is a reflection of the success Microsoft has had with this
policy. The bill is supposed to be in the committee stage (it has to
pass
two committees before being voted on in parliament); there's already
been
a debate on the committee where some comrades defended the free software
position against charges from APESOFT (Peruvian Association of Software
Producers) and PCM (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) who I should
say in passing are partners of M$, [ not sure I understand next phrase:
Este dictamen tenia que haber sido emitido hace buen tiempo!! GS] But
bringing up x justifications like the death of an ex-president, the
revolt
in Arequipa, and uncountable n other things, the committee has ordered a
wait till President Toledo comes back to come to a decision, which has
no
legal basis, and the worst of all as you well know the only purpose of
President Toledo's trip is to meet up with Bill Gates himself, so you
don't have to be too bright to see what's going to happen there and how
they're going to make the law disappear. In any case, we're not going to
wait with our arms folded, we're going to start protests (peaceful of
course), and writing letters to the media to show our indignation with
how
things are being manipulated. In the hypothesis that the bill is
dropped,
we'll carry on with the 4 congressmen who have presented similar bills,
although the one which had most resonance and is the most advanced is
Dr.
Villanueva's (the one of the famous letter to M$). In any case all of us
who have taken part in this are very proud because we've achieved a lot,
the important thing is that many people who didn't know free software
existed know about it now and that will help us break the software
monopoly. We can all fight for this cause, if you copy a Linux CD for
your
neighbour you're already helping :-)' [end translation]
So Mr. Gates can buy himself presidents now. I don't know who's worse,
him
or Toledo. :-(
But, also on today's Barrapunto, plans for another bill in Colombia,
building on the Peruvian experience (and asking for advice with the
drafting; for any Spanish speakers it's at
http://bachue.com/colibri/ley.html - see the 'borrador' page)
Graham
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