dot Communist Eben meets Indian Marxist-Leninist (his life after GPLv3 so to speak :-) )

[Alexander Terekhov]

http://swatantryam.blogspot.com/2007/06/free-software-free-culture.html

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Free Software, Free Culture 

Prof. Eben Moglen, Professor of Law at the Columbia University Law
School, General Counsel of the Free Software Foundation, Boston, and
Founder and Director-Counsel of the Software Freedom Law Centre, was in
India in the first half of June 2007, and in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
                                                                 ^^^^^^
State, during June 4-7. He spoke at the Indian Institute of Information
Technology and Management, Kerala (IIITMK), he held discussions with the 
Kerala State Planning Board, and addressed a publick meeting at Mascot 
Hotel along with Prof. Prabhat Patnaik, Vice Chairman, Kerala State 
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Planning Board. Given below is a brief report of the public meeting.

The Seminar started at 5:30 and the hall was almost full. Mr. Jyothilal,
Secretary of the IT Department, welcomed the gathering.

The first talk was by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik on Innovativeness in
Property Relations. He spoke very briefly, but demolished the idea that
innovation cannot happen without exclusion. He quoted Schumpeter, a
great supporter of capitalism, to show that the concept of private
property in ideas goes totally against capitalism. Taking the example of
two companies, he showed that the best course for each company will
always be to innovate. This is true even without the s-called
"Intellectual Property Rights". These rights are in addition to the
financial benefits they get from innovation.

Prof. Eben Moglen spoke next. His talk was called Freeing the Mind: Free
Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture. But he seems to have
departed much from his speech on this topic that can be seen on the Net.
He started where Prof. Patnaik left. He said that this was the first
time that he has had the government people on his side! His arguments
were from the practical point of view which, in a sense, complemented
Prof. Patnaik's theoretical analysis.
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http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Kerala.html

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The Marxist sentiments portrayed in The God of Small Things are in some 
ways representative of the actual political climate of Kerala. In 1957 
Kerala became the first state in the world (with the exception of the 
Italian principality of San Marino) to form a democratically elected 
communist government. In 1970 Kerala became the first state in India to 
abolish landlordism. Kerala is presently a democratic state, and is 
still under Marxist control. 
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http://pd.cpim.org/2006/1112/11122006_prabhat.htm
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist))

"The Centrality Of Leninism" by Prabhat Patnaik.

regards,
alexander.

--
"Live cheaply," he said, offering some free advice. "Don't buy a house,
a car or have children. The problem is they're expensive and you have
to spend all your time making money to pay for them."

        -- Free Software Foundation's Richard Stallman: 'Live Cheaply'