[LINK] Venezuela eliminates govt. software piracy

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Venezuela eliminates govt. software piracy
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 03/09/2002 at 11:52 GMT
The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26928.html

Venezuela has announced an official policy of preferring open source
software products to proprietary ones in the public sector, according to an
article by Linux Today's Brian Proffit
<http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-08-30-011-26-NW-LL-PB>.

Apparently, from now on all software developed for the government must be
licensed under the GPL. Even software used for Internet access to
e-government must run GPL'd apps on a GPL'd operating system. For new
purchases, free software is to be preferred to proprietaty wherever
practical.

Reasons for the switch include a desire to promote the local development
community rather than enriching those in bondage to foreign software
behemoths, and of course assisting in the good work of stamping out
unlicensed software from government bureaux.

Piracy is of course a major concern of Microsoft, which for years turned a
blind eye to the pestilence so long as world + dog was getting itself
nicely addicted to their wares. Now, with nearly every government and
business hopelessly dependent on their products, the company feels it's
safe to tighten the screws and send in the BSA Taliban to kick doors and
perform audits, leaving behind huge bills for licensing oversights.

No one needs this sort of treatment. But as Venezuela has just come to
realize, the best way to appease Microsoft -- indeed, to assist them in
this noble crusade -- is to replace their products with free ones.

Works for me.

-- 
Always do right. This will gratify some people, and  astonish the rest.
-- Mark Twain

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd@austarmetro.com.au
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