Re: [Freebangfont-devel] UniBangla

[Deepayan Sarkar]

I don't think political or personal inclinations of individuals (or groups for 
that matter) concern any of us much. I don't follow Microsoft related news, 
so I have no idea how much of these perceptions are true. I also have no idea 
how big of a business it is in Bangladesh to sell these add-ons, but of 
course it's quite likely that these will eventually suffer. Which is bad, but 
on the other hand I personally don't think software should have any monetary 
value (software skills are another matter), so I don't really care.

But all this is really beside the point. The concepts of Free Software and the 
GPL have nothing to do with India (and especially not Microsoft), and it is 
the spirit of these concepts that BIOS is violating. It's really very simple, 
all the GPL asks (and what BIOS seems to ignore) is that creators be given 
credit for their creations. It also asks that any work derived from the GPL 
also be GPL'd, which BIOS is also ignoring because they often seem to have no 
license statement at all. I don't know what Bangladesh laws are, but I doubt 
the default laws correspond to the GPL exactly.

These things may not seem important in the face of the much bigger problem of 
cost and proprietary rights, but they are to some, and the people involved in 
BIOS should be aware that what they are doing is illegal as well as 
unconscionable.

Deepayan

On Wednesday 23 April 2003 06:49 pm, Sajed Chowdhury wrote:
> Deepayan Sarkar wrote:
> [...]
>
> > very common with BIOS. I hope this is more due to ignorance then
> > intentional.
>
> I'm not involved with BIOS, but as a Bangladeshi I have to say that people
> in the "IT-field" here definitely have a "ghoti-phobia".  This has
> increased lately with the news coming out that Microsoft hired "experts"
> from West Bengal to verify the accuracy of bengali support in Office 2k3. 
> Our local "experts" then became infuriated that they weren't even
> consulted.  Companies that sell fonts and add-ons for MSWord are dreading
> that their livelyhood will
> soon be threatened to extinction.  Articles have come out in IT magazines
> bearing headlines that lament "Bangladesh-er bangla bhasha Bharat-er
> dokholay"
> etc.  Bangladeshis are being warned about the dire consequences of
> consuming Microsoft's "Indian-flavored" bangla.  I'm guessing that there
> will be a boycott of Office 2k3 as the product nears release and subsequent
> availability
> of pirated copies (unless Microsoft manages to keep that from happening).
> Coincidentally perhaps, BIOS was formed around the same time Office 2k3 was
> initially announced, and IT magazines have published multi-page articles
> about the "noble" effort of BIOS, some hailing it as our response to the
> "Gates-Buddhodev conspiracy" (credit goes to Mustafa Jabbar for coining
> that phrase, does that guy deserve to be our leader or what?).  With that
> backdrop in mind, I think BIOS would rather not loudly acknowledge having
> much of any influence of Indian origin.
>
> Also, I find it amazing that BIOS doesn't even have a public mailing list.
> Apparently they're not too bothered that they might be perceived as an
> invite-only project.  And perhaps they don't want anyone to just lurk
> around. Which, I'm grateful that FBF allows me to do.
>
> regards,
>
> Sajed Chowdhury
>
> "And those who know what's best for us
> must rise up and save us from ourselves"
> -Rush
>
>
>
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