Free Software Law in Peruvian Congress

An Anonymous Coward writes "There is a story on oreillynet.com on the response by a Peruvian Congressman to Microsoft's letter opposing a proposed Free Software Law. Here's the translated letter and this is the original letter that Microsoft submitted in response to the proposed law. It's always cool to see governments trying to enact these kinds of laws and watch the Microsoft backlash against them :)."

Comments

These countries understand what the US doesn't.

[mesozoic]

Free software is just the beginning of the next big evolution in computing technology. When you allow every single user of a system to improve the design of that system, you bring the network that much closer to the users. You allow so much more innovation and creativity with free software than with proprietary systems.

By placing free software at the center of all public technology efforts, you ensure that no matter what, the general public will be able to improve on the systems that its own government uses. Decades from now, it is my hope that free software will have transformed into the dominant force in the computing industry. We would have a world where every single computer user, no matter what their skill level, is able to contribute to the development and improvement of computing in general.

Imagine where all this could go in another few hundred years, once every person connected to the global computer network is able to improve on that network in every way possible. It could even be the next step in human civilization.

But that's distant future stuff, more rant than reality. The fact remains that making public technologies completely free, and completely open, is what is in the public's best interests. This is the future of technology, and it's sad that Peru has acknowledged it sooner than the US has.

Re:These countries understand what the US doesn't.

[AJWM]

I find it rather funny that a lot of "Open Source" proponents, who obviously aren't really programmers,

Well, this particular Open Source proponent has been earning a good living as a professional programmer (software engineer, programmmer analyst, whatever the current job title fashion is) for over twenty years.

A lot of that has been in-house development, not software-for-sale, and indeed that's where most of the market for programmers is. I've also developed software for sale -- one program went for something like $10,000 a copy (mainframe software), and included source (thus fitting Peru's requirement). I've also worked for a company that wouldn't even talk to a customer unless it looked like they had at least a quarter million dollars to spend. The core of that was closed, the customization scripts were open -- and the contracts typically included source to the binaries in escrow.

But much of the programming I've done is for in-house software that there'd be no other market for even if free, the stuff is either highly tailored to the specific practices of that company, or was one-off type stuff to, for example, fix data errors in a database, or generate specific statistical reports, etc. Then there's the stuff that isn't actually programming that is still part of the job: analysis, design, spec writing, training, tech support, evaluation of third-party software, etc, etc, all of which was worth money to somebody.

If you don't understand that, then you're clearly very naive about what the real job of most programmers really is, and can only conclude you haven't been out in the real world for more than few months.

A great read

[oneeyedman]

I don't know when I've enjoyed reading a long, lawyerly letter so much. (I can't imagine that this was really written by a congressman, though it would be nice to think so.) An earlier poster commented that we have all heard these arguments before on Slashdot. Well, not necessarily. There is a big difference between advocates and insiders trading views they already share, and watching a masterful display of reasoned analysis about genuinely different viewpoints. The letter puts the official Microsoft position through the Bass-O-Matic by out-arguing it, not by shouting back or by storming off in a rhetorical huff.

If Microsoft's public statements were held to this level of logic and clarity more often, we would have a very different software market. Advertising and other sorts of propaganda are so pervasive that I think we tend to forget what a real debate looks like. This Peruvian congressman reveals just how shallow Microsoft's self-interested arguments against free software really are. It makes them look both stupid and shrill.

Good work!

You're all karma whores...

[7-Vodka]

Don't chop off the letter. Let everyone read it in full. I was amazed by it, maybe you will be too. That letter is a flaming example of lucid thinking and straight talking... and it's from a politician folks. I wish I could vote for THAT guy to represent ME here in the US. When was the last time you heard an american politician talk about this issue at all? Hell, I've never heard an american politician even manage to take an important and complicated issue such as this and state it so clearly a teenager could understand it. Let's see M$ try to wriggle out of this response (hint: you'll not see it).

Now back to the U.S. What can we do to get OUR government to pass a bill like this? Any suggestions? I'm thinking about sending a letter to congressmen informing them of how free software is starting to be used in other countries and maybe even sending them letters like these as supporting evidence.

Re:Scoreboard!

[Lemmy Caution]

I'm half Peruvian, and all thrilled by this (in fact, I believe I'm distantly related to the esteemed doctor), but if you think that Peru's political process is by any measure clean, untainted by cash or other considerations, or anything of a model for other countries, I am deeply saddened that I must inform you otherwise. Peru is, to put it bluntly, hell of fucked up. And the Sendero is coming back.

There are many Peruvians of extraordinary virtue and principle when it comes to themselves, but unfortunately they (we) have weak spots when it comes to our families. We may turn down bribes for ourselves, but offer nice jobs, scholarships, promotions and other goodies to our family members (or, inversely, somehow threaten them), and we get maudlin and weak.

Re:Scoreboard!

[1010011010]

I like this part:

In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidising the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.

Insert knife; twist. :)

Re:article-timesaver (slightly redundant)

[The Monster]

Everybody on Slashdot has heard these arguments, so there's not really much to read.

Yes, we have heard them. What is refreshing is seeing a government official from a South American country (which we Gringos have been conditioned to think automatically means it's a dictatorship) 'get it' far better than our own government officials [emphasis mine]:

...the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law

I wish the typical US Congressmen understood this as well.