[p2p-research] floss in ecuador against pirarcy

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alex Gakuru <gakuru at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 1:47 AM
Subject: [PubSoft] Great initiative from Ecuador
To: PubSoft <pubsoft at elists.isoc.org>


Free Software Used To Fight Piracy, Broaden Knowledge Access In Ecuador
By Catherine Saez

A joint project being launched by a regional non-profit group along
with the Ecuador’s intellectual property office (IEPI) aims to reduce
software piracy by offering a free software alternative through public
libraries. The initiative is meant to encourage the use of legal
software and thereby lower the piracy rate.

For the “Free Library” project, the Latin American Center for
Intellectual Property Research for Development – known as Corporación
Innovarte – has signed an agreement with the national IP office
(IEPI), the Free Software Foundation of Ecuador and the associations
of libraries. Corporación Innovarte aims to promote access to
knowledge, innovation, and culture as tools for development.

The project is meant to use libraries as a vector to build a
distribution channel for free software available to users. Free
software will be offered as part of the usual library collections. The
initiative will disseminate free software among the population,
serving two goals: offering people different options while supporting
the “spread of educational and research possibilities,” and
contributing to the limitation of illegal software use.

According to the Free Software Foundation, free software allows the
user “to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the
software.” Access to the source code is a precondition for this. The
copies can be redistributed either with or without modifications, for
a price or free of charge “to anyone, anywhere.” Free software is a
matter of liberty, not price, says the foundation’s definition of the
term, which adds: “free, as in free speech, not as in free beer.”
...

<
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/04/22/free-software-used-to-fight-piracy-broaden-knowledge-access-in-ecuador/
>


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