[TriLUG] White House response to FOSS petition?

[Joel J. Adamson]

"Peter Neilson" <neilson at windstream.net> writes:

> - The title suggests that the government's policies regarding software
> are a major cause of the national debt. "A sentiment open to doubt,"
> as Dodgson said.

Definitely, as financial cost-saving is neither convincing nor the real
goal.  The real goal is ethical cost-saving.

> - It appears to be a request that rms be made Software Czar based on
> an assertion of his moral character.

I doubt he would take the job!

> - It attributes a PhD to rms, something I'm pretty sure he lacks:
> "(e.g. Dr. Richard M. Stallman of Boston, MA)"

He has several honorary Ph.D.s[1] from universities all over the world.  

> - Appointment of Bill or Melinda Gates as Software Czar could easily
> be presented as fulfillment of the wishes of the petitioners.
>
> - What prevents the Czar's creation of a new agency, the FOSS (Federal
> Open Software Service), and of the crime of creating or distributing
> non-FOSS-approved software?
>
> "Be careful what you ask for. You might get it."

These are all good points.

Joel

Footnotes: 
[1]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Recognition

-- 
Joel J. Adamson <adamsonj at ninthfloor.org>
Servedio Lab
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://adamsonj.ninth.su

Free Software Foundation Member #8164
Join the FSF: http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=8164
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