%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %deffont "std" xfont "helvetica-medium-r" %deffont "thick" xfont "helvetica-bold-r" %deffont "tt" xfont "courier-medium-r" %deffont "it" xfont "helvetica-medium-o" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %default 1 center, size 3, fore "black", back "white", font "thick", bimage "fondo_debian.png" 1280x1024 %default 2 leftfill, size 3, fore "black", font "std", charset "iso8859-1" %default 3 leftfill, size 3, bar "gray70", font "std" %default 4 leftfill, size 4, fore "darkblue", font "std" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %tab 1 size 4, prefix " ", icon box "black" 30, font "std", leftfill %tab 2 size 3, prefix " ", icon arc "red" 30, font "std", leftfill %tab 3 size 3, prefix " ", icon delta3 "green" 30, font "std", leftfill %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page %nodefault, font "std", back "white", fore "darkblue", charset "iso8859-1", bimage "fondo_debian.png" 1280x1024 %center, size 4, vgap 50 What is Free Software? %vgap 40, size 3 %%Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Victoria %%8 de mayo, 2003 %%Jornada Científico Técnica - Computación del Golfo %%14 de mayo, 2003 %%CORESOL - GULBCS %%28 de junio, 2003 %%Instituto Tecnológico de San Juan del Río %%2 de octubre, 2003 %%Universidad del Valle de Orizaba %%3 de octubre, 2003 %%Congreso de Software Libre y Nuevas Tecnologías %%8 de octubre, 2003 %%Instituto Tecnológico de Nogales, Sonora %%27 de octubre, 2003 %%Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Teziutlan %%6 de noviembre, 2003 %%Quinto Congreso Internacional de Ingeniería Industrial y Sistemas computacionales %%Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey - Veracruz %%18 de marzo, 2004 %%CICOL - Instituto Tecnológico de Cuautla %%25 de marzo, 2004 %%Linux en Chihuahua 2004 %%22 de abril, 2004 %%Conferencia Latinoamericana En Informática (CLEI) 2004 %%Arequipa, Perú, 27 de septiembre al 1 de octubre, 2004 %%ESIME Culuhacán %%México D.F, 7 de abril, 2005 Debian Day Debconf 5, Helsinki, July 9, 2005 %vgap 40, font "std" Gunnar Wolf - %cont, font "tt" gwolf@debian.org %font "std" Insituto de Investigaciones Economicas - UNAM Debian project developer %font "tt" http://www.gwolf.org/soft/what_is_free_software %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Definition: What is Software? Software is knowledge %pause Knowledge is information %pause Information is science %pause %center, size 6 Software is science %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Definition: What is freedom? Autodetermination %pause Growth %pause Evolution - Natural selection %pause Cross-polinization, multiple influence %pause %center, size 6 Science has always been free %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page The scientific process, up to ~1950 A scientist researches on a subject, for himself, his sponsor, institution, monarch... %pause The time he invested on his research is paid to him, and the work becomes property of mankind %pause If somewants to build over his work, he can do it - Just credit his authorship %pause "We are standing on the shoulders of giants" -Sir Isaac Newton %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Then what happened to us? (1) Corporativism Big companies and large capitals have too high an influence over governments Laws such as the patent or copyright law, created originally to protect the creative individual's rights and bring more innovation, have been ridiculously corrupted %pause Transition to the patenting process to the absurd Anything is patentable Patent to buy over a communications network - USPTO5960411, Peri Hartman et. al. Patent for a circular device and apparatus for the facilitation of transport - John Keogh (Australia) Patent over the process of making "cochinita pibil" - 433941 (31/3/1993, México) Many companies exist only in order to manage a patent portfolio and sell usage licenses It is impossible to carry out an exhaustive investigation while developing a project, avoiding the infraction of any existing patent %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Then what happened to us? (2) Semieternal copyright Originally, the copyright law protection was for 28 years since the work's creation Because of the pressure made by the various copyright holding corporations (i.e. Sony, Disney, etc.), nowadays it reaches the natural lifeterm of the author plus 70 years, or 95 to 120 years for works made by contract %pause Intellectual property has magically appeared as part of the collective subconscious What is the logic behind this idea? Since when does knowledge have an owner? What does it need it for? What relation do the different part of the so-called intellectual property have with each other? Copyright Patents Trademarks %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page The world today... Science held hostage An international discussion regarding the legality of patents over ideas / algorithms / software The (fortunately successful) race against having a patented human genoma (John Sulston+Sanger Centre vs. Celera Genomics) The worries of a pure scientist: They need working implementations before publication, or else somebody can patent their work %pause Software in specific: The traditional licensing models End User License Agreement: Is it legal? Software renting: Is it ethical? Closed file formats: What can they lead to? %pause Software patents Patents should defend the lonely inventor Directed towards industrial processes Is it valid to patent a mathematical algorithm? Is it valid to patent a nontangible idea? Very recent decision regarding software patents in the European Union %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Ok, now... What is Free Software? Software that keeps freedom, that keeps knowledge's characteristics %pause Being concrete: Software that assures us: Freedom of use Freedom of learning Freedom of improvement Freedom of redistribution %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Free Software and businesses By 'Free', we are refering to freedom, not to price. Free Speech, not Free Beer %pause It is perfectly valid to make money off Free Software (most of us actually live off it) Charging for development/adequation Charging for consulting/configuration %pause Many very successful companies live or earn from Free Software Directly and as their main product: Progeny, Ubuntu, Cygnus, RedHat, Lindows, etc. Indirectly and as an added value: IBM, Sun, HP, SGI, etc. %pause Independent consulting Independent professionals who give support to Free Software Enough to cover any and every company's needs %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Why do I want to develop Free Software for my client? Ability to use code from my past developments or from other people Savings on development time Reducing costs for the client %pause Peer review Ability to ask our friends for help on our implementation Usually they will point us towards other projects with applicable ideas %pause Ability to collaborate with our past works in larger projects For the benefit of my friends and of the world It brings you fame and recognition, and that leads us to participation in more projects, which in turn... %pause Encourages good programming practices The three great virtues of a programmer: Impatience, laziness, hubris %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Why do I want my programmers to develop Free Software? It guarantees us our systems' maintainability %pause Reduces costs, increases trust %pause Avoids the dependence on a single provider %pause Eases the creation of development groups, systems integration %pause Gives recognition and publicity to my company %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Why should we demand our government to adhere to Free Software? Information survival Standard formats Well documented systems and interfaces %pause Responsability in the allocation of taxes Pay for a development, not for individual licenses Does not tie to a specific platform %pause Technological independence We will pay for development - Why don't we care for the money to stay in our country? %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Conclusions Free Software is a radical departure from the knowledge production systems we have grown used to in the last decades It is nothing new: It leads us back to development as it has always been Free Software challennges the relation between knowledge producers and knowledge consumers Free Software will get you %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page %center,size 10 Questions? %center,size 4 Gunnar Wolf gwolf@debian.org http://www.gwolf.org/soft/what_is_free_software