Peru Boldly Defends Her Software Rights
Date: May 6, 2002
Slashdot has a very interesting
thread about a Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nunez, a very well informed
Congressman of the Republica of Peru, who wrote a very critical letter of
response to Juan Alberto Gonzalez, General Manager of Microsoft, Peru, on his
country's bill about Free Software in Public Administration. Gonzalez had
penned Microsoft's natural opposition to this bill, which Nunez, to stunning
effect, was able to shred to pieces. As one Slashdot reader succinctly
expressed, "The translated reply to Microsoft Peru by the congressman is a
work of art. The case stated in the letter does more for the free software
movement than 100,000 posts on Slashdot." And by another, "This letter is an
excellent deliberation upon the virtues of free software in such a manner that
not only does it embarrass Microsoft, but the refutation is effectively
apodictic. His elegance, grace, and accuracy in his comments assures that if
his position is not irrefutable, a counter would fall short of Mr. Nunez's
acme of debate." And one more, "If Microsoft's public statements were held to
this level of logic and clarity more often, we would have a very different
software market. Advertising and other sorts of propaganda are so pervasive
that I think we tend to forget what a real debate looks like. This Peruvian
congressman reveals just how shallow Microsoft's self-interested arguments
against free software really are. It makes them look both stupid and shrill."
The rest of this extensive thread can be read
here.
Other countries would greatly benefit from the wisdom and understanding that
Nunez has brought to this debate.
My only concern about this proposed law is that it may suffer from the effects
of some unsavory influence. The alarm bells in Redmond are no doubt ringing
very loudly indeed. Let's hope the consequences don't influence this excellent
piece of legislation. South America has enough internal problems to be getting
on with, without having to contend with the unwanted meddling from a convicted
monopolist.
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