FSFLA campaign against "Softwares Impostos" in Brazil

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:43:00 +0000
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Brazil requires some taxpayers to use non-free software to fill in
their tax forms. In order to fight for citizens' and taxpayers' right
to freedom, FSFLA launches a campaign against "Softwares Impostos" in
Brazil. (In Portuguese, "Impostos" means both "taxes" and "imposed".)

Citizens and taxpayers of Brazil, write to the president to let him
know you want to be able to choose freedom! Call for the state to
make this tax software free! Say that you want the public
administration to make commitment to Free Software, both internally
and in interactions with us all!

We recommend that you write your own letter to the president.
You can mention other cases in which the public administration makes it
difficult to avoid proprietary software. As a suggestion, we offer a
sample letter below, that one of the Brazilian FSFLA board members
sent.

We suggest letters to be short (25-30 lines of content) and
respectful, addressed to the current president. Use the web form
available at http://www.presidencia.gov.br/presidente/falecom/ or, if
you prefer, send regular mail to the address in the sample letter. If
you like, also send it to softwares-impostos@fsfla.org, so that we can
arrange for all such letters to be published on the Internet.

Freedom is not something you're given, it's something you conquer.
Do your part for a Freer Brazil!

About FSFLA

FSFLA, in process of legal constitution, joined the FSF network
previously formed by FSFs in the United States, in Europe and in
India. These sister organizations work in their corresponding
geographies towards promoting the same Free Software ideals and
defending the same freedoms for software users and developers, working
locally but cooperating globally. For more information about FSFLA
and to contribute to our work, visit our web site at www.fsfla.org or
write to info@fsfla.org.

Press Contacts

Alexandre Oliva
Board member, FSFLA
+55 19 9714-3658 / 3243-5233
lxoliva@fsfla.org

To Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of the Federative Republic of Brazil
Palácio do Planalto
70150-900 Brasília, DF
Brazil

I hereby request that the president keeps on promoting and
accelerating the option for Free Software, that respects the freedoms
to run, study, modify and distribute, both within the sphere of the
public administration and in digital inclusion programs.

I request priority to the effort of ensuring that software offered to
citizens and taxpayers be Free and functional on Free platforms.
Concrete examples of initiatives to this end that still need attention
are:

a) proprietary programs distributed by Receita Federal (IRS): even the
multi-platform versions won't work on Free Java implementations,
because they use undocumented features available only in proprietary
implementations.

b) the Internet banking system at Banco do Brasil, that, in addition
to being proprietary, won't accept passwords when run on entirely Free
platforms.

More generally, I request that every electronic interaction between
the public administration and citizens or taxpayers be done by means
of formats, standards and protocols that are open, public and of
irrestricted use, with Free implementations available for Free
platforms.

These measures are necessary to comply with several constitutional
principles, such as publicness (transparency), impersonality,
legality, efficiency, economicity, sovereignty, free market and
reduction of regional and social inequalities.

Without more, I subscribe myself,