Re: [ossig] can the ossig community help to do something +ve ?

[Dinesh Nair <dinesh@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 27 May 2004, Yusseri Yusoff wrote:

> “Our outrage at China notwithstanding, we should remember that before 1891,
> the copyrights of foreigners were not protected in the United States. We were
> born a pirate nation.”

they were also born out of a revolution, which explains why today they
help others revolt against their nation's leaders. :) ok, that's my
singular political statement on the world's remaining superpower.

> Monday, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal
> warned that Malaysia risked being blacklisted by the World Trade Organisation

in a roundabout and cruel way, perhaps being blacklisted may mean a boost
for our domestic industry. without access to technology from other
countries (which i'm assuming a blacklist would mean), we'd be forced to
create our own technology. necessity is the mother of all invention. :)

> But I suppose we'll just have to keep trying to ram the message into
> people's heads (and work towards creating that particular OSS commercial
> entity).

it's the work of getting it into people's heads which is tough. many will
talk of OSS, but not walk the same talk. the government will not
officially push OSS, the national OSS policy notwithstanding, as they have
to be seen to not take sides and to be fair to both open source and closed
source businesses. they will however enforce the law, and if the law says
piracy is illegal, then they will enforce that. [1]

it's also in doing this that i think the OSS community needs to buck up.
as the topic in #myoss which quotes me, "but the OSS community at large
needs to DELIVER". we must DELIVER software which the customers/users are
happy with. none of this geek l33tness which dictates that if you cant
install it yourself you're too stupid to use it. this is just pure
arrogance and the creation of a class system[2]. OSS has to be just as
easy[3] to procure/install/use as closed source software. then you've
provided a clear alternative. otherwise, customers will risk legal action
by procuring and using pirated software if they cant afford the license
fee.  they will take the shortest and easiest path.

for a long while, only dr nah and myself were speaking publicly and widely
trying to raise awareness about open source. today, many of you and your
organizations have jumped on the bandwagon to spread the gospel. and we
have met that goal to an extent on open source. we deserve to pat our
collective backs for achieving this goal. there is nary a person does not
know about open source. the awareness of what it is and that it exists is
already out there. we now need to take the next step and do more than
preach. we need to deliver on the promises we're making.

it is these reasons which motivated me to work on the OSSPIP project as a
commercial entity. the reason being that not all talented programmers are
motivated by the open source ideals. some are motivated by money and
remuneration.  so i will pay them to write good open source software, and
find a business model for the software which allows me to continue paying
them. for the others who're driven by the open source ideals and dont
insist on being paid, join the project (when it is launched. dont ask me
when, it's not in my control now) as an open source developer.

[1] i cant quote sources of this policy as it was related to me in
confidence. you'll just have to trust me that it came from the highest
levels of government. yusseri, with his business and social network,
would be able to verify this trivially. :)

[2] i will cop to having this geek l33t attitude once, but i guess age has
mellowed me and allowed me to see the larger picture.

[3] easy from the customer/user's definition, not ours as developers

Regards,                           /\_/\   "All dogs go to heaven."
dinesh@alphaque.com                (0 0)    http://www.alphaque.com/
+==========================----oOO--(_)--OOo----==========================+
| for a in past present future; do                                        |
|   for b in clients employers associates relatives neighbours pets; do   |
|   echo "The opinions here in no way reflect the opinions of my $a $b."  |
| done; done                                                              |
+=========================================================================+


---------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message