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Open Letter To Mammootty

From FSCI Wiki

Open Letter to Mammootty to Reconsider Promotion of Microsoft and their Proprietary Softwares

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A malayalam version of this letter is available here . Please help to complete this Translation മമ്മൂട്ടിയ്ക്കൊരു തുറന്ന കത്തു്

Context

Microsoft will be signing up Malayalam movie star Mammootty as one of the brand ambassadors for the Computer Literacy programme that is to be organized soon in Kerala, a Southern Indian State well known for its pro-free software policies. This is an open letter by Free Software Activists, Supporters and Users of Kerala to Mammootty.

Open Letter to Mamootty from Free Software Community

Dear Bharat Mammootty,

This letter is to express our deepest disappointment in your involvement with Microsoft to launch their e-literacy program in Kerala and is based on the belief that you have high social convictions and commitment to the people of Kerala.

Kerala's civil society had in the past been delighted by your decision to dissociate with the coco cola advertisement project as a response to the resource exploitation and pollution caused by the corporate body. However, people of Kerala will be bewildered to see that you are lending your name and fame to support a devastatingly nefarious techno-monopolistic campaign unleashed by Microsoft in our state. We feel your move is both ill-advised and harmful.

Being the Director of a major media initiative (Kairali TV, Malayalam Communications Limited) that claims to be people-oriented both in terms of its initial resource mobilization tactics as well as its professed commitment to people's causes, it is embarrassing to see that such concerns are completely sidelined in favor of a hideous agenda of a major US based multi-national IT giant, despised even in US for its monopolistic tendencies. In fact there are records of this company using underhanded tactics to enforce its views on an organization like ISO which maintains international standards for public benefit.

We are assuming that you were not given enough information about the IT Scenario we live in.

Software is a tool and a means with which we can achieve a lot of things. In this respect, it is similar to infrastructure like roads and rails. Using Microsoft software is akin to using a road built by a private agency who levies a charge for its use. Any further development of that road and the terms of usage of that road will be subject to the whims of that private agency alone, however insane it may be. Free Software is like an alternate road , with equal or better quality. It is community owned - public property. What modifications have to be done, and where it has to be done is driven by public need and is not influenced by a private party.

When we use Microsoft's products, which do not give the 4 essential freedoms in Computing (Right to study, Right to copy, Right to modify and Right to Redistribute software), we are becoming helpless creatures. Non-free softwares like Windows are designed to keep users helpless and prohibit cooperation. On the other hand , Free software believes in sharing and cooperation.

For your kind attention, Microsoft, the company with which you plan to sign the contract, has a track record of being fined($1.35 billion) for Antitrust Charges in European Union for not complying with EU standards and trying to avoid giving essential information required for interoperability to others by asking for a huge price. As the report says, "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," The Hindu February 28, 2008.

The Kerala state IT policy says motto of Akshaya project is ‘making technology and e-government services accessible to common man’. For making technology and e-governance accessible to common man without vendor lock-in, Free Software (Swathanthra Software) is the only solution available.

On IANS Report you are saying "your mission is to help make all sections of the society IT literate". We understand and appreciate your genuine spirit. But selecting Microsoft as an accomplice would be a wrong choice. Making people literate benefits the society as a whole. Proprietary software rejects their thirst for knowledge: it says, “The knowledge you want is a secret — learning is forbidden!” Free software encourages everyone to learn. The free software community rejects the 'priesthood of technology', which keeps the general public ignorant of how technology works. The people and Government of Kerala understood it and has already introduced it in our schools and government institutions. So we request you to stand for free software and essential freedoms in computing to fulfill your mission.

Since you have on several occasions expressed your support to the causes upheld by left forces in the country, we hope that it will not be news to you that CPI(M) and other progressive forces in the country have been ardent supporters of free software and as a matter of principle, detest Microsoft's monopoly built through treacherous market machinations that even the developed countries find unbearable.

It is high time that you understood the implications and ramifications of your support for Microsoft. It seriously undermines your role as a socially committed artist, progressive media leader and sympathizer of leftist politics.

We hope that being a thinking man, you will realize the error in endorsing proprietary software and will persist in your mission of bringing about IT to the common man via free software and open standards. As a great man who has enriched the culture of Kerala and India, please do set an example by using and promoting free software.

We as a body that strives to support free standards and free society through free software, request you to reconsider your decision and be a proponent of free software to achieve your mission to help make all sections of the society IT literate.

Let us build your dream together with free software.

A group of free software activists, supporters and users who believe in freedom, free society and free expression of ideas.

Endorsed by

Organisations

  1. FOSS Communities in India
  2. GNU Linux Users Group- Thiruvanathapuram
  3. Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
  4. Swathantra Software User Group Malappuram
  5. Palakkad Libre Software Users Society
  6. GNU/Linux Users Group Calicut
  7. Free Software Users Group Bangalore
  8. Open Source Foundation of India
  9. Movingrepublic
  10. Indian Linux User Group Cochin Chapter
  11. PHP Trivandrum
  12. Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA)
  13. ViBGYOR Film Collective
  14. Keraleeyam Magazine
  15. Third Eye Films
  16. Visual Search, Bangalore
  17. SPACE
  18. Union Christian College FOSS CELL, ALWAYE
  19. Free Software Users Group Thrissur
  20. Forum Kerala
  21. Cinemela Film Festival, New Delhi
  22. South Asia Citizens Web
  23. Free Software Foundation of India
  24. BMS Libre Software Users' Group (BMSLUG)
  25. Swatantra Kannada Localisation Project
  26. COIMBATORE HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM

Individuals

  1. Abdulkareem UK
  2. Abhinandh
  3. Ajai Joseph
  4. Amit Surana
  5. Anand Babu Periasamy
  6. Anand S Babu
  7. Ani Peter
  8. Anish Bhaskaran
  9. Anivar Aravind
  10. Anoop John
  11. Anoop Jacob Thomas
  12. Anoop P Alias
  13. Anoop Panavalappil
  14. Anoop V Muraleedharan
  15. Anu James
  16. Arun.K.R
  17. Ashik Salahudeen
  18. baburajbhagavathy
  19. Baiju M
  20. Bipin Thayyullathil
  21. Birenjith P S
  22. Chandra Sekar.S
  23. Chandrasekharan Nair S
  24. Cibu C J
  25. Chandra Kumar
  26. CK Raju
  27. C.Saratchandran
  28. Dr.Mahesh Mangalat
  29. Fr. Benny Benedict
  30. Mr. Bruce Mathew
  31. Geethika G.
  32. George John
  33. G. Palaniappan
  34. Harish Veeramani
  35. Hari Vishnu
  36. Harsh Kapoor
  37. Hiranjyoti Mahanta
  38. Hiran Venugopalan
  39. Jaisen Nedumpāla
  40. J Suresh Kumar
  41. Jayesh V
  42. Jinesh K J
  43. Dr. Sunny Kuriakose Alwaye
  44. Jithu Sudhakar
  45. Joby John
  46. Joice Mulanthanam
  47. Joseph John (Saji)
  48. Justin Joseph
  49. K.P Sasi, Filmmaker
  50. K.Satchidanandan, Poet
  51. Madhusoodanan P
  52. Mahesh Aravind
  53. Manilal K M
  54. Manish Sharma
  55. M Jayadev
  56. Mathew Chacko
  57. Mustafa Desamangalam
  58. Nimesh V
  59. Nishan Naseer
  60. Pavithran S
  61. P.Baburaj
  62. P.K.Pokker, Director, Keralabhasha Institute
  63. Pramode C.E
  64. Prashant Shah
  65. Pratheesh Prakash
  66. Praveen A
  67. Praveen Gopinath
  68. Prakash Kumar Ray, Cinema Studies, SAA, JNU, New Delhi
  69. Prinson.P.J
  70. Raja Swamy, Austin, Texas
  71. Rajiv R Nair
  72. Sajith VK
  73. S.Anoop
  74. Sajeer.A.R
  75. Sam Albuquerque
  76. Sameer Mohamed Thahir
  77. sarah singh
  78. Sanju Surendran
  79. Sreenadh H
  80. Santhosh Thottingal
  81. Sarath Lakshman
  82. Shashank Bharadwaj
  83. Sheshu K R
  84. Shyam.k
  85. Sibi Antony
  86. Sp^wN_0F_S^T^N
  87. Sudhang Shankar
  88. Sujith Haridasan
  89. Thanesh Thampi
  90. The Overclocked Fragger
  91. Sudev
  92. Vimal Joseph
  93. Vikram Vincent
  94. Vipin Vincent
  95. V K Adarsh
  96. Vishal Rawlley
  97. Vivek Khurana
  98. Yesudeep Mangalapilly
  99. karthick.n(linux loves me)
  100. Ranjith S. Kumar
  101. Amey Jahagirdar (One Happy Linux Mint User)
  102. Noor Manseel Mohamed

Relates Links

  1. Microsoft, Mammootty to launch Kerala e-literacy programme
  2. CPI(M) supports Free software
  3. Globalization Institute's submission to European Union
  4. Kerala schools use free software
  5. What is Free Software?
  6. ORUMA: the result of KSEB’s concerted efforts