[Linux-aus] Promoting FOSS in Australia

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 10:58:50AM +1100, Rusty Russell wrote:
> In message <20040224201559.GC12530 at 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.

-- 
Dan Shearer
dan at shearer.org