Don't be a pirate: get your software for free

PRESS RELEASE
September 13, 2007

Don't be a pirate: get your software for free
Filipino Free and Open Source Community prepares for Software Freedom Day

Reference: Rick Bahague, SFD project coordinator
Contact: 09178840096

"Know a world where no users are pirates and software sharing is legal" invites Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals' Union (CPU).

CPU is spearheading the Philippine celebration of Software Freedom Day 2007 on Saturday, September 15 ( http://sfd.cp-union.org ). This year's celebration will be held at the ASTI Building in UP Diliman Campus.

Students, local software developers, users and enthusiasts are expected to attend the celebration.

Rep. Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna will be present to give updates on the status of FOSS Bill in the Philippine Congress. Bayan Muna filed the Bill last year with mixed reactions from the industry and local foss groups.

"The government will continue to be dependent to proprietary and foreign software technologies unless it actively supports FOSS initiatives and give preference to the use of FOSS in institutions," Bahague added.

"However, it will take a strong political will for countries to be independent in software technologies using FOSS. The case of Venezuela should be noted." The Charge d' affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Manuel Perez Iturbe will share their FOSS policies in their country.

Software freedom day kits will be distributed to early participants and the media to introduce them to excellent softwares without the usual restrictions in licensing fees of proprietary software.

Software Freedom Day is a global event organized by more than 133 free and open source (foss) groups spread in more than 90 countries. The local celebration is participated by more than 10 groups including UP Linux Users' Group, UP ACM, International Open Source Network, local linux users' groups and peoples' organizations supported by local companies like Stratpoint Technologies, Q-linux Labs, Morph labs, and Promethost.com. The Advance Science and Technology Institute will be providing facilities for video streaming of the event and video casts of Davao celebrations.

The Computer Professionals' Union is a group of volunteers advocating information technology for the people. CPU has developed free software for use of different peoples organization. It has recently released the human rights monitoring system at code.google.com.

Ref: http://www.cp-union.org/cms/?q=node/53
###