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