Re: France planning to ban free software??

Hi,

> do you know anything about this? I haven't heard anything about it
> really and
> to be honest it sounds crazy, but I'd like to get some more details.

I heard about it last week. As Guillaume says it is pretty crazy. I
guess it's a desperate move by an industry lobby who's overwhelmed by
tehcnologies they don't master (and they're not used to not mastering
technologies). So they would rather forbid the whole concept of free
software than trying to be clever. It's always easier playing the big
bad ass rather than using your neurons (see the Bush government). In
a way it's rather similar to the fight agains terrorism: traditional
structures are overwhelmed so they turn to strong-arm tactics at the
expense of democracy and all.

The scary thing about this law proposal is that there are enough
crazy people in the French governement right now that such a law
could pass. In particular, a power-hungry maniac like Sarkozy (the
Interior Minister and senior fascist) is ready to do just about
anything to get people to elect him in 2007. The other risk is that
the law is planned to be debated in parliament very soon to prevent a
debate from being organised. It might be hard to mobilise quickly
enough and the law could pass as just one more document to sign.

Then again, it's not all dark. After intense lobbying the licensing
law that Americans wanted to impose on Europe was refused by the
European Parliament. Also the French National Police Force and the
French equivalent of the IRS have both recently migrated to Open
Office, so there's quite a strong current among the French
administration in the favor of open source software.

Cheers (or try to, anyway)

---------------
Francois

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