----- Original Message ----- From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 4:46 PM Subject: RE: [LIG] [draft] open letter to indian finance minister - a different point of view
> At 02:40 PM 3/8/2003 +0530, BNV Raman wrote: > >I do not agree with what levying excise duty is supposed to achieve. I have > >no objection to levying excise duty on commercial software, but not for the > >purposes that the thread originator proposes. As all software companies > > [snip excellent essay] > > I agree completely. > > This original "open letter" is such a harebrained idea for god's sake. > > That, and what makes the general public here so confident that such > letters, open and published in the media, or sent to the ministry by > certified mail, or anything else, are going to influence policy there? > > >enjoy the **limited** benefits provided by the government in the form of > >defense, infrastructure, etc, they should also pay the same taxes and duties > >that manufacturing industries and services pay, viz, excise duties, sales > >taxes and income taxes, but not to promote FLOSS! > > I think they'll find that trying to make this distinction will actually > *kill* FLOSS far more than it will affect commercial software. Guess where > a lot of the money that comes into developing FLOSS comes from? Guess > where a lot of people working on FLOSS every inch of their spare time get > their salaries from? > > Zero excise duty on _all_ kinds of software and hardware is an excellent > thing, as a matter of fact - it will drive down prices across the board in > the industry, which is a good thing. > > In any case, if you put FLOSS head to head with commercial software, most > of the time, it will win on its own merits. > > suresh > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Etnus, makers of TotalView, The debugger > for complex code. Debugging C/C++ programs can leave you feeling lost and > disoriented. TotalView can help you find your way. Available on major UNIX > and Linux platforms. Try it free. www.etnus.com > _______________________________________________ > Linux-india-general mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-general > ================================================ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe in subject header. Check archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd%40wpaa.org
