Will Bill Give You Silver Candlesticks?

Les Misérables is about the story of Jean Valjean.  He was a poor man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread.  After his release from prison, he found it difficult to find accommodation because of his prior conviction.  Eventually, he came upon a bishop who provided him with food and board for the night.  Valjean didn’t stay through the night though but stole the bishop’s silverware and silver plates.  He was apprehended by the police the next day and was brought back to the bishop to verify the ownership of the stolen goods.  The bishop claimed the goods were given as gifts to Valjean and gave him, in addition, silver candlesticks which the former claimed Valjean forgot to bring along with him.  The bishop hoped the silverware, silver plates and silver candlesticks would help Valjean forge a better and honest life.

 

Mr. Valjean was hungry for food.  We, the poor people from the developing world, are hungry for technology (and this is a pathetic attempt at parallelism).  So, like Valjean, we steal the software by purchasing the bootleg version.  Well that is how the authorities and media would like us to think, anyway.  Let’s skip the debate on whether the third world deserves cheaper software because this blog is about FOSS or Free and Open Source Software.   The development of FOSS makes it possible for needy citizens of a developing country to revel in the beauty of free software legally.  Yes, FOSS makes a mockery of software commercialism.  FOSS screws around with Bill Gates’ mind.   But more importantly, FOSS might pull back the ordinarily law-abiding man from the hell that is piracy and put him back on the straight and narrow path of moral and legal uprightness (I am now officially channeling the bishop from Les Misérables).  Simply put, it is a legal alternative to software piracy.  The concept is already working for hardware.   Instead of faking brand names, CD-R King has line of cheap peripherals instead.  Why not promote a free software that works as well as or even better than Windows Office?  If you can’t afford it, just FOSS it.  It just might save you a trip to jail.  Because in the real world, when you are caught using an unauthorized copy of Microsoft Windows and you are brought before Bill Gates for reckoning (okay, this may just be a little too much), he will not give you silver candlesticks (or free software).  He will probably slap you with a lawsuit or brandish you before the world as a sinner.

 

To repeat what my fellow bloggers are saying, perhaps it is equally proper and practical to promote a pro-FOSS program alongside an anti-piracy program – for software at least.  Entertainment is another matter.   But it would be interesting (but impossible) to develop Free and Open Source Entertainment (FOSE).  Then I could cast Poppa Pitt and Johnny Depp in every movie (perhaps not as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, that would just be plain creepy) or just make them pop up randomly on the screen for eye candy.   Or the Japanese could recreate Thirteen Ghosts because Hollywood totally wasted its scare potential.  And maybe I could get a better singer to sing Paris Hilton’s songs.  Celebrities are overpaid and this blog just officially veered away from its main topic.