[Fsedu-developers] Letter to Bush and my congressman

[James Michael DuPont]

My Father is still using virus plagued windows, and wrote to his
congressman and the president of the USA, with me on the cc. (I did not
vote for either of them)

In any case, I used this opportunity to response summarize my
viewpoints on the immorality of microsofts EULA in the context of a tax
funded education.

Have fun reading,
mike
--------------------------------------------------------
>From mdupont Thu Sep  4 10:11:41 +0200 2003
From: James Michael DuPont <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
CC: address@hidden, address@hidden,
        address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden,
        address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden
In-reply-to: <address@hidden> (message
from joe
        R DuPont on Wed, 3 Sep 2003 21:21:46 -0400)
Subject: Re: Dealing with Viruses!!!
References:  <address@hidden>


Joeseph R DuPont writes on :
>>Dealing with  viruses is becoming a real problem  and it would seem
that
>>the Government / or Governments should fund FREE anti virus software
and
>>rid the risk of knocking out our computers and causing financial
>>ruin.

This FREE anti-virus software is called GNU/Linux!

The GNU/Linux system is being constantly upgrade by a team of
volunteers to remove security problems. These upgrades are made
available in an easy to use format that is for free.

The Governments of NJ and US should support the GNU project which
produces
free operating systems and anti-virus software. 

The government should support the rights of students to choose not to
use the virus infested and insecure windows software. 

Public money is being spent in millions on non free software that has
licenses designed on taking away the basic rights of students.

The department of justice has found Microsoft guilty of abusing their
monopoly and destroying competition. As the result of this, the
department of justice has called for the opening up of the office file
format, which are used to encode the users data in a way that it
cannot be read by other free software.

I ask congressman Congressman Frelinghuysen and President Bush, to
support the FSEDU project, free software for education.

We have developed a bill of rights for the students that I ask you to
review : 

http://fsedu.org/fsedu.pl?DefendStudents

1. You have the right to use free software instead of proprietary
software for all school-related tasks. The school shall not impede this
right in any way.
2. You have the right to demand open file formats:

2.1. Allow sincere choice of software/operating system

2.2. Openly specified and freely implementable

2.3. Work with completely Free systems

3. You have the right to publish your homework assignments as you see
fit, for profit or gratis.

4. You have the right to publish what you learn, in your own words,
   for profit or gratis. 


Microsoft has been signing contracts with tax funded schools to "give"
them software at lower cost. This however is impeding on the rights
of the students for the following reasons  :

1. The schools have to monitor the students activities and report and
   suspect activity to Microsoft : this creates a mistrustful
   atmosphere and it is an invasion of privacy.
   If the schools where to use free software, there would be no such
   monitoring needed.

2. The Microsoft licenses are discriminatory to the "class" of the
people who
   are allowed to use the software. People who are working in the
   kitchen, on the grounds, etc are not allowed to take part in the
   "free" software from Microsoft. This is a discrimination against
   those people and their families, who would benefit from
   high-quality free GNU Linux software. 
   

3. The Microsoft licenses take away the natural fair use of the
software that is
   granted under copyright law. The right to look inside the software,
   the understand the file formats, the right to use the software for
   whatever purposed you see fit. 
   The amount of freedom that is taken away from the users is amazing,
   that is why I see this as a selling of the students basic
   rights. These are rights granted to the students by law that are
   systematically robbed of them. 
   It is a insult to the rights of the students that taxpayer money is
spent on supporting this
   robbery.
  

4. Tax funded schools are requiring students to submit their homework
   assignments in the closed format from Microsoft. This is the very
   format that the department of justice found illegal and being used
   to support the illegal activities of Microsoft.
   The licenses that take away your basic right to view the file
   formats themselves and make your alternative reader software. 

   The FSEDU project seeks to make it illegal for public institutions
   to require that documents be submitted in these non-standard and
   non-free file formats crippled by questionable licensing.

best regards,

James Michael DuPont
co-founder fsedu.org project for free software in education.
http://www.fsedu.org

Former resident and registered voter of Morris country NJ.
Ludwigstr.10
60327 Frankfurt am Main
Germany.


=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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