MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-07-07 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Software Freedom Day Contribution
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Freedom OS - Operation Digital Freedom
Dispatch: Post 9-11 New York 30 June, 2004
On June 24th, 2004, the BBC has reported that the new liberated Iraq is
getting its sealegs as a nation with the help of the GNU/Linux operating
system. A Baghdag based GNU/Linux users group that has been at work,
nutured by my friend, and editor of The Linux Journal, Don Marti. The
system is quickly taking root in this nation which is emerging from 30
years of brutal repression. It's a natural fit. A nation which has
experienced genocidal attacks at the hands of it's own government, and
is not still being rocked by fanatical ideologs and religious fanatics,
is reacting by reaching for a centralist expression of their collective
individuality and singular freedom. GNU/Linux, from its inception,
remains one of the most power tools of freedom in human culture. In
fact, the United Nations has recognized the Free Software Movement, upon
which the GNU/Linux system is built, by receiving the GNU Projects
sources and attempting to register GNU as to its Immaterial World
Heritage List.
So what is this GNU Free Software stuff?
A technical discussion of the mechanisms of Free Software and all its
machorations miss the point. Free Software is simply a tool for the
protection of your fundemental freedoms in the Digital Age. It's the
means upon which we can be guaranteed that the present and future tools
of human expression and communications remain property of the public,
and not the guaranteed protected providence of a privledged few. Its the
means by which individuals can be assured that digital systems serve to
be exploited by the public, rather than have the public be exploited by
dgital systems.
As a foundation for this freedom, Free Software provides world wide
users of digital systems with a Free Operating system. What makes this
operating system free is that all of its code is licensed to the public
with guaranteed rights to the user. These rights include the right to
use the software, to examin the code base, to alter the code base as is
fit for the user, and to use the code and its system for any purpose you
choose to. In addition, the GNU/Linux system has an additional
requirement on the user, that if they make and distribute changes to the
code, that they are required to provide the same set of guarantees to
the reciever of that software. Together, this provides a working
communications solution for the public which can not be obfuscated for
the purposes of general political exploitation. This might pose the
question to some, is Free Software useful? Obviously, if digital systems
don't work, then they can not provide freedom regardless of the
licenses. But in fact, Free Software is more useful that proprietary
systems. In addition to the basic usefulness of the software as a hammer
or a nail, Free Software has an additional usefulness directly as a
result of its freedom. Where would Holywood be without Free Software?
Nearly every major motion picture studio is completely dependent on Free
Software, and the guarantees of freedom implied through its licensing
for their special affects factories. In order to push the envelope,
movie after movie, they need the guarantee of free access to source code
and design. These studios don't have the luxury to wait for a single
companies versioning upgrades. They need improvement now.
Desktop publishing, word processing, database storage, desktop design,
raster graphics, network services, educational programming, internet
services, digital audio and programming launguage development are all
rapidly evolving in todays Free Software environemt. And Free Software
has been so successful at providing real world solutions, that the
corperate giants in the computing world have stood up and taken notice.
Novel, Hewit Packard, IBM, and Dell have all made major commitments to
Free Software and have changed their entire corperate culture and
marketing stratergies to dovetail with the improved freedom and untility
which Free Software provides.
In fact, the offerings of Free Software have exploded in the last 2
years. No manager in business enterprise or education can any longer
ignor the obvious advantages of Freedom which only Free Software
provides. Free Software has arrived, with 3 cover stories in Forbes
Magazine within the last year. Free Software provides a definition of
usefulness which can not be matched under any circumstance by
proprietary system. This is a definition which says, you can use this
software for any purpose that you see fit, without exeception, in
collaberation of others, for your advantage, without limitation. The
complaints of the software end user is instantly responded to, creating
a competitive advantage which can not be matched.
Foundations for Freedom
The foundation for all this excitement and development is the General
Public License (GPL) of the Free Software foundation. Written and
developed by the Free Software Foundation, with the major contribution
given by Lawyer Eben Moglen, Professor of Law & Legal History at
Columbia University in New York City. Designed on principles laid out by
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and project
GNU, the GPL guarantees the the receive of Free Software rights and
responsibilities. These Rights and Responsiblilies can be summing up as
follows:
Rights:
1.Users of Free Software are guaranteed to receive the
source code for all digital applications licensed under the GPL.
2.Users are entitle to alter and change the digital systems which they
aquire according to their needs and ability.
Responsibilities:
1.Providers of Free Software are required to distribute source code with
any digital system they distribute to the public, under all
circumstances
2.Providers can not restrict users in the use of their
software or or software which they have improvemented and enhancemented
when distributing the software.
3.Software developers and distributers
can not prevent users from making improvements in their software, and to
distribute those improvements under the terms of the GPL.
--
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