[Linux-aus] Re: linux-aus digest, Vol 1 #494 - 5 msgs

[Ben Minton <benminton@austarnet.com.au>]

Seem to have not understood the gist of this. Are you talking about the
SCO action or the lunacy underway courtesy of the EU Parliament re
software patents?

Ben 

>    1. Re: Promoting FOSS in Australia (Rusty Russell)

> From: Dan Shearer <dan@shearer.org>
> To: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
> Cc: Con Zymaris <conz@cyber.com.au>, Ben Minton <benminton@austarnet.com.au>, Linux Australia General <linux-aus@lists.linux.org.au>
> Subject: Re: [Linux-aus] Promoting FOSS in Australia
> Date: 25 Feb 2004 12:04:15 +1030
> 
> On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 10:58:50AM +1100, Rusty Russell wrote:
> > In message <20040224201559.GC12530@cyber.com.au> you write:
> > > Stay clear of the 'political' sphere, at least publically, and concentrate
> > > on helping smooth out areas which prevent FOSS solutions being considered
> > > by government procurement people presently. Areas such as a lack of
> > > broadly understood risk assessment and FOSS 'product' quality assessment
> > > guidelines; lack of local FOSS solution providers' experience in selling
> > > into government; lack of 'product' marketing etc.
> > 
> > Just to clarify: WRT adoption, I completely agree.
> > 
> > However, political action is required where something comes up which
> > directly threatens Open Source development.
> 
> Current legal issues threaten creativity in Australia across the board.
> Parts of OSS might get shut down first, that's all. Australian media,
> closed source developers, inventors and even chemical companies should
> be very worried.
> 
> The only Australians in creative industries who don't need to be
> concerned are:
> 
> 	* all those that run multibillion dollar international companies
> 	  in areas such as software or media from Australia. Every
> 	  single one.
> 
> 	* those that are employed in Australia by multibillion dollar
> 	  international companies based overseas, and who are sure that
> 	  they will always be able to find a similar employer during their
> 	  career (for example, because multibillion dollar
> 	  international companies truly believe in supporting local
> 	  Australian employment.)
> 
> Much has been said about how the OSS community has been complacent,
> caught napping etc. But I'm not aware of the media, closed source
> software, database content producer communities or other targets of
> these IP provisions even caring at all.