[Gllug] EU patents

[Allen Baranov]

On Monday 30 June 2003 15:34, Alistair Mann wrote:

> What would be helpful is lobbying. But lobbying is an olde worlde solution
[..]
> thing that sticks in their mind. "Lower taxes? That means votes! An
> American account?! OS means waving the flag, and that means votes!"

That exact argument has worked in South Africa even though Microsoft tried to 
bribe our Government with free software for schools. (which is what they 
offered and then it turned into "free upgrades for legally bought Microsoft 
software"). The argument is as follows: "Assume that there is an equal TCO 
between a Linux and a MS solution - with more cost in personnel for Linux and 
more for the license and hardware for MS. Take the total cost of the project 
and invest the amount saved on hardware and licenses and train some support 
people. ie. instead of making the US richer upgrade *our* country. Reinvest 
in education and create jobs." 

At the moment the South African government is investigating *only* using open 
source products. If there is none availible then they will use proprietry but 
the supplier has to invest 5 - 10% of the contract in Open Source 
development.

Allen Baranov


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