Open Letter To Mammootty

Open Letter to Mammootty to Reconsider Promotion of Microsoft and their Proprietary Softwares

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A malayalam version of this letter is available here . Please help to complete this Translation മമ്മൂട്ടിയ്ക്കൊരു തുറന്ന കത്തു്

Context

Microsoft will be signing up Malayalam movie star Mammootty as one of the brand ambassadors for the Computer Literacy programme that is to be organized soon in Kerala, a Southern Indian State well known for its pro-free software policies. This is an open letter by Free Software Activists, Supporters and Users of Kerala to Mammootty.

Open Letter to Mamootty from Free Software Community

Dear Bharat Mammootty,

This letter is to express our deepest disappointment in your involvement with Microsoft to launch their e-literacy program in Kerala and is based on the belief that you have high social convictions and commitment to the people of Kerala.

Kerala's civil society had in the past been delighted by your decision to dissociate with the Coca-Cola advertisement project as a response to the resource exploitation and pollution caused by the corporate body. However, people of Kerala will be bewildered to see that you are lending your name and fame to support a devastatingly nefarious techno-monopolistic campaign unleashed by Microsoft in our state. We feel your move is both ill-advised and harmful.

Being the Director of a major media initiative (Kairali TV, Malayalam Communications Limited) that claims to be people-oriented both in terms of its initial resource mobilization tactics as well as its professed commitment to people's causes, it is embarrassing to see that such concerns are completely sidelined in favor of a hideous agenda of a major US based multi-national IT giant, despised even in US for its monopolistic tendencies. In fact there are records of this company using underhanded tactics to enforce its views on an organization like ISO which maintains international standards for public benefit.

We are assuming that you were not given enough information about the IT Scenario we live in.

Software is a tool and a means with which we can achieve a lot of things. In this respect, it is similar to infrastructure like roads and rails. Using Microsoft software is akin to using a road built by a private agency who levies a charge for its use. Any further development of that road and the terms of usage of that road will be subject to the whims of that private agency alone, however insane it may be. Free Software is like an alternate road , with equal or better quality. It is community owned - public property. What modifications have to be done, and where it has to be done is driven by public need and is not influenced by a private party.

When we use Microsoft's products, which do not give the four essential freedoms in Computing (Right to study, Right to copy, Right to modify and Right to Redistribute software), we are becoming helpless creatures. Non-free softwares like Windows are designed to keep users helpless and prohibit cooperation. On the other hand, Free software believes in sharing and cooperation.

For your kind attention, Microsoft, the company with which you plan to sign the contract, has a track record of being fined $1.35 billion for Antitrust Charges in European Union for not complying with EU standards and trying to avoid giving essential information required for interoperability to others by asking for a huge price. As the report says, "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," The Hindu February 28, 2008.

The Kerala state IT policy says motto of Akshaya project is ‘making technology and e-government services accessible to common man’. For making technology and e-governance accessible to common man without vendor lock-in, Free Software (Swathanthra Software) is the only solution available.

In the IANS Report, you said that you want to launch the project "to help make all sections of the society IT literate". We understand and appreciate your genuine spirit. But selecting Microsoft as an accomplice would be the wrong choice. Making people literate benefits the society as a whole. Proprietary software rejects their thirst for knowledge: it says, “The knowledge you want is a secret — learning is forbidden!” Free software encourages everyone to learn. The free software community rejects the 'priesthood of technology', which keeps the general public ignorant of how technology works. The people and Government of Kerala understood it and has already introduced it in our schools and government institutions. So we request you to stand for free software and essential freedoms in computing to fulfill your mission.

Since you have on several occasions expressed your support to the causes upheld by left forces in the country, we hope that it will not be news to you that CPI(M) and other progressive forces in the country have been ardent supporters of free software and as a matter of principle, detest Microsoft's monopoly built through treacherous market machinations that even the developed countries find unbearable.

It is high time that you understood the implications and ramifications of your support for Microsoft. It seriously undermines your role as a socially committed artist, progressive media leader and sympathizer of leftist politics.

We hope that being a thinking man, you will realize the error in endorsing proprietary software and will persist in your mission of bringing about IT to the common man via free software and open standards. As a great man who has enriched the culture of Kerala and India, please do set an example by using and promoting free software.

We as a body that strives to support free standards and free society through free software, request you to reconsider your decision and be a proponent of free software to achieve your mission to help make all sections of the society IT literate.

Let us build your dream together with free software.

A group of free software activists, supporters and users who believe in freedom, free society and free expression of ideas.

Endorsed by

Organisations

1. FOSS Communities in India
2. GNU Linux Users Group- Thiruvanathapuram
3. Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
4. Swathantra Software User Group Malappuram
5. Palakkad Libre Software Users Society
6. GNU/Linux Users Group Calicut
7. Free Software Users Group Bangalore
8. Indian Linux User Group Cochin Chapter
9. PHP Trivandrum
10. Free Software Users Group Thrissur
11. Free Software Foundation of India
12. Open Source Foundation of India
13. Movingrepublic
14. Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA)
15. ViBGYOR Film Collective
16. Keraleeyam Magazine
17. Third Eye Films
18. Visual Search, Bangalore
19. samalochana
20. SPACE
21. Forum Kerala
22. Cinemela Film Festival, New Delhi
23. South Asia Citizens Web
24. BMS Libre Software Users' Group (BMSLUG)
25. Swatantra Kannada Localisation Project
26. COIMBATORE HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM
27. Malayala Kalagramam Film Society,New Mahe
28. Kerala Society for Theatre Research,Sree Sankaracharya University,Kaladi.
29. Padhabhedam magazine, Calicut
30. IBON South Asia
31. FOSSMeet@NITC
32. Fireflies- an ngo for children and youth
33. Subaltern Studies. An open-access media, communications, and cultural studies collective

Individuals

1. Abdulkareem UK
2. Abhinandh
3. Aditya Kavoor
4. Afthab Ellath
5. Ajai Joseph
6. Amey Jahagirdar (One Happy Linux Mint User)
7. Amit Narkar
8. Amit Surana
9. Anand Babu Periasamy
10. Anand Haridas
11. Anand S Babu
12. Ani Peter
13. Anish Bhaskaran
14. Anivar Aravind
15. Anoop C Jacob
16. Anoop John
17. Anoop Jacob Thomas
18. Anoop P Alias
19. Anoop Panavalappil
20. Anoop V Muraleedharan
21. Anu James
22. Arun.K.R
23. Asha Gopinathan IISc
24. Ashik Salahudeen
25. baburajbhagavathy
26. Baiju M
27. Bipin Thayyullathil
28. Birenjith P S
29. Chandra Sekar.S
30. Chandrasekharan Nair S
31. Cibu C J
32. Chandra Kumar
33. CK Raju
34. C.Saratchandran
35. desertwind
36. DileepRaj, Resident Editor, Penguin Malayalam
37. Dinesh Joshi
38. Dr. Mahesh Mangalat
39. Edwin
40. Fr. Benny Benedict
41. Mr. Bruce Mathew
42. Geethika G.
43. George John
44. Gopal menon, Film maker
45. G. Palaniappan
46. G.P Ramachandran
47. Hafiz A Haq
48. Harish Veeramani
49. Hari Vishnu
50. Harsh Kapoor
51. Hiranjyoti Mahanta
52. Hiran Venugopalan
53. Jaisen Nedumpāla
54. J Suresh Kumar
55. Jagadish S
56. Jayakumar Thazhath
57. Jayesh V
58. Jinesh K J
59. Dr. Sunny Kuriakose Alwaye
60. Jithu Sudhakar
61. Joby John
62. John Samuel, Convenor, National Social Watch Coalition
63. Joice Mulanthanam
64. Joseph John (Saji)
65. Justin Joseph
66. Kalyani Menon-Sen
67. karthick.n(linux loves me)
68. Kishore.A
69. K.M Venugopal
70. K.P Sasi, Filmmaker
71. K.Satchidanandan, Poet
72. Kishore Budha
73. M Jayadev
74. Madhusoodanan P
75. Mahesh Aravind
76. Manilal K M
77. Manish Sharma
78. Manu S Madhav
79. Mathew Chacko
80. Mohana Krishnan
81. Mustafa Desamangalam
82. Nimesh V
83. Nishan Naseer
84. Nishanth Dhar
85. Noor Manseel Mohamed
86. Pavithran S
87. P.Baburaj
88. P.K.Pokker, Director, Keralabhasha Institute
89. Pramode C.E
90. Prashant Shah
91. Pratheesh Prakash
92. Praveen A
93. Praveen Gopinath
94. Praveen P
95. Prakash Kumar Ray, Cinema Studies, SAA, JNU, New Delhi
96. Prinson.P.J
97. Raja Swamy, Austin, Texas
98. Rajiv R Nair
99. Rakesh Sharma Film Maker
100. Ranjith S. Kumar
101. Ravi Chandra Padmala
102. Sajeer.A.R
103. Sajith VK
104. Sam Albuquerque
105. Sameer Mohamed Thahir
106. Sandeep Jairam Web Developer
107. Sanju Surendran
108. S.Anoop
109. Santhosh Kurian
110. Santhosh Thottingal
111. Sarah Singh
112. Sarath Lakshman
113. Sasi Kumar, V.
114. Seena Sreevalson
115. Shabnam Hasmi
116. Shailesh Kumar Soft Developer
117. Shashank Bharadwaj
118. Sheshu K R
119. Shyam.k
120. Sibi Antony
121. Siddhartha Brahma
122. Sp^wN_0F_S^T^N
123. Sreenadh H
124. Sudev
125. Sudhang Shankar
126. Sujith Haridasan
127. Sushovan Dhar
128. Thanesh Thampi
129. Thejesh GN
130. The Overclocked Fragger
131. T.T Sreekumar
132. Venkatesh Choppella IIITM-K
133. Vikram Vincent
134. Vimal Joseph
135. Vineesh Thalethodi
136. Vipin Vincent
137. Vishal Rawlley
138. Vivek Khurana
139. V K Adarsh
140. Yadu Rajiv
141. Yesudeep Mangalapilly
142. Zaheer M Kozhakkaniyil
143. Mohan R
144. Sabeel

Relates Links

1. Microsoft, Mammootty to launch Kerala e-literacy programme
2. CPI(M) supports Free software
3. Globalization Institute's submission to European Union
4. Kerala schools use free software
5. What is Free Software?
6. ORUMA: the result of KSEB’s concerted efforts