Re: [Fsfe-uk] OSS Pol. v2 and other stuff

[graham]

Lee Braiden wrote:

> (a lot of very sensible stuff  which is slightly off-topic for this 
> reply)
>
> Now, I understand that it wouldn't be smart to tell our government that they 
> have a whole barrage of new IT ethics to worry about, when they're probably 
> still new to IT
Didn't I just see that the new head of IT is the former boss of 
Accenture? Talk about putting the fox
in charge of the chicken-coop. I imagine all the talk about paying 
attention to open source in
procurement policies is now so much hot air (at national level, at 
least), and any attention to ethical
policies will only come if they are really forced on them. Which means 
shouting about them, not playing them
down.

> and just finished getting around to basic things like 
> wheelchair access.  But... perhaps it would be at least worthwhile to hint at 
> such concerns, if only to avoid limiting the argument to financial 
> considerations?
>  
Limiting the argument to financial considerations is Microsoft's prime 
goal in all their propaganda
(conferences for international leaders etc). This is a case where esr's 
argument that talking about
freedom is useless for practical purposes  is absolutely wrong:  the 
only way to build a real case
for government use of free software is by arguing for freedom and 
ethics. The financial side is
the icing on the cake, and no more than that.

Graham