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Re: [ox-en] Re: Nationalism, protectionism and Free software advocacy, was: Re: [ox-en] Manifiesto para Lula (fwd)


On Sun, 26 Jan 2003, Chris Croome wrote:


Thankfully the internationalist nature of the free software movement
appears to be a lot stronger that the nationalist spin that is being
used to advocate it's adoption by nation states.



  I believe that the internationalist nature of free software should
include recognizing that the special national interests of foreign market
players needs to somehow be 'rejected' or 'opposed'.  Recognizing that
non-free software is centralized into some of the same protectionist
organizations that other foreign policy is (and yes, primarily directed
out of the USA, but not entirely) is important.

  If a national government isn't willing to enforce their own domestic
laws protecting free markets (IE: no punishment for Microsoft's anti-trust
violations in the USA), why should other national governments trust the
products coming out of that economy (or specially out of that specific
market)?


  Tariffs to help your golf buddies is protectionism (much of recent
Intellectual Property policy fits into this category IMNSHO).  Tariffs or
other domestic market manipulations for accountable public policy reasons
is not.


Chris

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