119 lines
5.5 KiB
HTML
119 lines
5.5 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html>
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Classification of Free Software as a World Cultural Heritage</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<p class="postit">
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This project was discontinued. The pages here are kept for archiving
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purposes.
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</p>
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<div align="center">
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<h2>Classification of Free Software as an intangible world
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cultural heritage</h2>
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<table width="30%" summary="Menu">
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<tr><td>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="done.html">Work done</a></li>
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<li><a href="support.html">Supports</a></li>
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<li><a href="links.html">Links</a></li>
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<li><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
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<li><a href="press.html">Press</a></li>
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<li><a href="help.html">How to help</a></li>
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</ul>
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</td></tr>
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</table>
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</div>
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<p>A working group has been set up in January 7th, 2002 by
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<a href="http://www.april.org/">APRIL</a> and <a
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href="http://fsffrance.org/">FSF France</a>.
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The original idea is from Pierre Jarillon (<a
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href="http://www.abul.org">ABUL</a> president). The objective is to have Free
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Software classified as an intangible world cultural heritage by the
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<a href="http://www.unesco.org/">UNESCO</a>.</p>
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<p>Why? First you must understand it would benefit to the Free Software
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community, but also to humankind as a whole. Free software is not only about
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computer science, technique or even licenses. It deals with freedom,
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equality and fraternity. Freedom to copy, to study, to modify and to
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redistribute software or documentations. Equality, same rights for every
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user, without discrimination. Fraternity, because we talk about sharing and
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mutual help. Moreover Free Software is already part of the humankind heritage,
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in fact. We are trying to obtain a UNESCO recognition. The previous values
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are common to the Free Software community and the UNESCO.</p>
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<p>Now let's see what the community could expect from this recognition. First
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a strong support, because the UNESCO is a major organisation, with an
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important aura. It could give a major recognition to Free Software, and a
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very large diffusion. Sort of planetary promotion. Finally, it would also
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bring legal protection to Free Software (via the UNESCO legal services),
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against looming <a href="links.html">threats</a>.</p>
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<p>We'll begin by ethic/philosophical arguments. We previously talked about
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freedom, equality and fraternity values, about our philosophy which is
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beneficiary for humankind as a whole. We also add the transparency value,
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which prevails in our community. Finally you should keep in mind only
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Free Software can be considered as world heritage. "To serve humanity with
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software, software should be free, because software belongs to human
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knowledge. Proprietary software does not belong to human knowledge." (Richard
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M. Stallman, GNU project founder and <a href="http://www.fsf.org">Free
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Software Foundation</a> president).</p>
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<p>Now, the social arguments. It's a question of mutual help and knowledge
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sharing. To make tools (and even much more than tools) available for
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everybody. It seems to meet UNESCO values. Free Software allows a situation
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where nobody limits others freedom. Nobody forbids you to copy, to use, to
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modify or to redistribute, nobody chains you up. Let's add Free Software
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allows a quicker development for developing countries (not only them, it's
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also true for other countries). They also allow protection of cultures and a
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better ease of use, due to multilingual support.</p>
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<p>Technical arguments? Free Software has already proved itself (stability,
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performances, etc). It's also essential in the field of computer security,
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because it's the only one which gives transparency and verification, in a
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field where there can be no blind confidence in this or that software
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editor. Internet would be pretty different from what it is now without
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Free Software (60% of web servers, large part of email or DNS servers, etc)
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and the Network would have grown slower without it. Free Software brings
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continuity: you won't be blocked by an editor disappearance or trapped in the
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version race ("sorry version N-1 is no more supported and nothing runs with
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it, and you'll need to change all your hardware to use version N, whose
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files are not compatible with version N-1"). Finally Free Software is about
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benefit from work already done, not reinventing the wheel, "sitting on
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giants'shoulders" (one can see further).</p>
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<p>What about independence? First, there is independence of governments. Not
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just voters or citizens to satisfy, no election dates to muddle decisions.
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Secondly, independence of companies. Not just market shares, consumers or
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shareholders. Finally, independence of political parties. And no frantic
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pursuit of profit in contempt of everything else, no obligation to release
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unfinalised versions. Even if a government, a company or a party develops
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a free software, user freedoms are protected and everybody can carry on with
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the project in their own way if necessary.</p>
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<p>And now, the facts: Free Software is already part of the world heritage,
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as previously said. And it has numerous supports, from governments,
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associations, firms, and more and more users. Even the UNESCO has a
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<a href="http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/">Free Software
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portal</a> and leads <a
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href="http://www.unesco.org.uy/informatica/consorcio/index.html">actions in
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Latin America</a>.</p>
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<p>Group leader: Benoît Sibaud (bsibaud@april.org)</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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