Why Human Rights Requires Free Software

andyo writes "Why Human Rights Requires Free Software: Report on a practitioner's view of the critical role free software plays in the work of human rights activists around the globe."

Comments

Another long term problem in China

[argoff]

A lot of people can see how the institutions that try to impose software and copying restrictions choke off freedom in the USA, but those economic forces and pressures will eventually reach China when they come into the information age too.

China's government will not be so restrained, and it could easially lead to a brutal or even genocidal crackdown when it comes to billions of people and trillions of dollars in intellectual property controlls. For the USA to insist that China impose strong intellectual property controlls inspite of it's culture to the contrary is outright reckless and irresponsible. The freedom to copy is one of the last glimmers of freedom in an otherwise militant police state. IMHO we are setting ourselves up to swallow some bitter Chineese medicine.

absolute bullshit

[Pave Low]

first you see where the author's agenda is when he writes "Whenever the United States attacks a country, diplomatically or physically, it cites human rights claims." Well, that's just not true, first of all, but he fills this article with all sorts of false statements like this to knock down.
The same challenges arise when a human rights organization publicly presents its results. The politicians, generals, and other power-holders will dispute every step in reasoning. Well yea, but what does free software have to do with this? People who challenge results talk about the methodologies used, how they collect the data, and so forth. Nobody cares what software they use. Openness of code is meaningless if the process is closed. Look at the slashdot moderation system.

Patrick finds the costs of proprietary software offensive. "It widens the imbalance between the rich and poor regions of the world," he says. Even worse, "It concentrates power in the hands of software owners." That's just bullshit. Where's the evidence for that? You don't want to pay for expensive software, don't buy it. If the costs are so offensive, then buy something cheaper. Oh wait, the cheap free solution often times isn't as good.