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Dump proprietary software: Stallman

ALUVA: Richard M. Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, has said that freedom to distribute exact copies of a software programme is essential.

Mr. Stallman was delivering a lecture on ‘free software in ethics and in practice,’ after inaugurating the Master of Computer Applications building at the Union Christian College here on Wednesday.

“The user will be in danger of falling into a moral dilemma, if he or she has to use software without freedom. One evil is to give a copy of the software and violate the licence. And the other one is not to copy and comply with the licence. You ought to choose the lesser evil. Give a copy and violate the licence of the programme. If you cannot avoid doing wrong to somebody, better do it to somebody who deserves it,” he said encouraging the audience to reject proprietary software.

Mr. Stallman said organisations which said it was wrong to share software were poisoning the resource. “It is something society cannot afford. What does it mean when they say that you are a pirate, if you share?” Users had the freedom to distribute exact copies of the software. “Freedom to study the source code is also required,” he said.

Joseph Mathew, IT Advisor to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, inaugurated a centre for free software research and extension on the occasion.

In his address, Mr. Mathew urged the student community to voice their protest against IT giants who promoted proprietary software. The campuses failed to register their protest against the recent raids by Microsoft against IT dealers in the State, he said.

Mathew Koshy, Manager of Union Christian College, presided over the meeting. Varughese John, Principal, and Sasikumar of Free Software Foundation of India, spoke.

Students of the Master of Computer Applications rendered a free software song, as part of the inaugural ceremony.

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Dump proprietary software: Stallman

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