[Surfside] Sane, intelligent politician discovered in Peru

[Jez Weston]

A clear, concise, polite and informed way to tell Microsoft to take a
flying fuck at a rolling doughnut:

http://www.gnu.org.pe/resmseng.html

To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ
General Manager of Microsoft, Perú

Dear Sir.

First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25 2002 in which you
state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609,
Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired
by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global
technological context. 

To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is
indespensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single
provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of
this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free
software.

To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the
usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the
goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by
them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which
can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.
To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is
indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which
allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of
information to third parties. Systems with source code freely
accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the
State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent
experts throughout the world.

Jez

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