When governments mandate proprietary software
greve
|
Wednesday 07 March 2007
|
Software is increasingly essential to communicate with our
governments, and the choice of that software is a very sensitive issue
in a democracy. There is always a danger of undermining the right of
the citizens to freely communicate with the government -- and that
right is obliterated when governments mandate the use of specific
proprietary products for that communication.
Not only does this turn governments into agents
of monopolisation, it also creates a de-facto two-class society
between those that have access to the proprietary solution, and those
that do not.
FSFLA, FSFE's sister organisation in Latin
America, has spoken
up against such "imposed software" in Brazil, where the tax
declaration has to be made electronically with a proprietary
program. From FSFLA's newsletter:
How would you react to headlines such as "Government agency pushes red
meat down vegetarian's throats!" during a (hypothetical?) law-mandated
f[e]ast? [...] This wouldn't amount to mere disrespect for legitimate
and thoughtful choices (even if you don't agree with them). It's
government agencies breaking the law so as to force citizens to break
the law, against citizens' own personal legal choices, and in
detriment of the citizens themselves.
Fewer people feel that strongly about rejecting non-Free Software than
about the issues above. But should our thoughtful and legitimate
choices be disrespected just because we aren't that many?
It seems that the continued work has now
shown some effect: One of Brazil's major newspapers has now published
an article about the issue in which governmental officials were
forced to comment on the situation.
Well done, FSFLA!
