Dear Satish,

Free Software is not Open Source 
  Software. Access to code is not the main
issue. Free License implies 
  Ownership and Control. It is not the recipe of
coke but the ownership of 
  coke.

Copyrighting is the root cause of the digital divide... here is 
  an
oversimplification so that you can 
  understand..
------------------------------------------------------
Before 
  the concept of Private Property:
  No Economic Divide
After the 
  concept of Private Property:
  Land Owners

  Landless
  Economic 
  Divide
------------------------------------------------------
Before the 
  concept of Intellectual Property:-
  No Digital Divide
After the 
  concept of Intellectual Property:
  Those with Knowledge

  Those without Knowledge
  Digital 
  Divide
------------------------------------------------------

You 
  will notice this trend in all forms of privatization:- water, 
  phrases,
gestures, ideas, products etc.

General Public License 
  transfers ownership of digital assets to the poor.
To use a Marxist phrase 
  - the means of production in the knowledge economy
will be transfered to 
  the poor. This is a 'critical' component of any
digital divide 
  intervention.Without this type of systemic intervention all
other ICT is 
  merely technology band-aid. 

Please see my IIM-B presentation for more 
  details:
http://www.mahiti.org/events/Event.2002-12-16.3025/view

Thanks,

Sunil
Thanks,

Sunil

=====
Sunil 
  Abraham [MAHITI]
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, 
  INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 5352003. Pager: 9624 279519
sunil@mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org

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