Warning:- This one is a bit tongue-in-cheek!!!!

sunil wrote:

Before the concept of Private Property: No Economic Divide After the concept of Private Property: Land Owners Landless Economic Divide

Later on, the world was divided into the haves, the havenots, and the have-not-paid-for-what-you-haves.

Before the concept of Intellectual Property:- No Digital Divide After the concept of Intellectual Property: Those with Knowledge Those without Knowledge

This one is serious.

Now, with the concept of IP, as understood by WIPO, and interpreted within the past two or three decades, the statement about 'have not paid for what you haves' will start applying to the countries of world too. Already, we have the developed countries, underdeveloped countries, and broke countries.

Regards, Mahesh T. Pai.

sunil:

thanks much. went to the recommended site. i don't think you need ti oversimplify it. it is oversimplified in itself though it could do with a bit of editing.

having seen it, read it i am persuaded that its propounders live in a world of their own and have a right to do so. i believe that without intellectual property rights there may have been some ideas. innovation, technolgy development and progres would have taken another path altogether and it can be shown that at least in terms of economics as we know it, it would be a sub-optimal model compared to what we have known. i do not wish to debate it on this forum for a variety of reasons and would think while the debate has a place on this forum, it may not be the right place for allocating majority of its time to free software etc.

you are an infectious speaker and will always sway people your way. that will not persuade me to go along with the substance of it though.

thanks much ________________________________ satish jha cmd, james martin & co www.jmcin.com president, digital partners india n-103, panchsheel park, new delhi - 110 017 v: 649 9384/5; 649 4384/5 f: 649 4380

----- Original Message ----- From: sunil To: bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com Cc: linux-india-general@lists.sourceforge.net ; fsf-friends@gnu.org.in Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 5:21 PM Subject: Re: [bytesforall_readers] Microsoft to share Windows code withIndia

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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