Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:54:12 +0000
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IRPF-Livre 2011: Death and Taxes

Brazil, April 25, 2011---Last week, billions of people around the world celebrated their faith on a Nazarene liberator and his miraculous victory over death. On the 21st, Brazil also remembered the death of Tiradentes, martyr for the country's independence, who survived only in memories and in history books. Our gift, hereby announced, doesn't contain Easter Eggs, that symbolize rebirth, resurrection or the creativity of computer programmers, but it has to do with one of the two certainties in life. Although it doesn't avoid death, it enables escaping from an unfair tax charged by the Brazilian government in the form of freedom. We offer IRPF-Livre, 2011 version, a Free alternative to the illegally privative software imposed on Brazilian taxpayers to prepare their annual Income Tax returns (IRPF).
http://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/snapshots/irpf-livre/2011/

IRPF-Livre, that we have maintained since 2007 as part of our campaign against the deprivation of freedom by governments through Imposed/Tax Software, was updated in accordance with changes in legislation and the undocumented file formats required by Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB).

Although RFB has fixed some of the copyright violations over Free Software libraries that we pointed out in earlier versions of its privative IRPF2011, the imposition of this software amounts to failing to respect not only citizens, but also recent regulations.

Specifically, Normative Instruction (IN) 04/2008/SLTI, effective since January, 2009, demands from public administration, in its article 21, that “software resulting from development services must be [...] published at the Brazilian Public Software Portal.”
http://www.comprasnet.gov.br/legislacao/in/in04_08.htm (in Portuguese)

Furthermore, IN 01/2011/SLTI, effective since January, 2011, regulates how software is to be published at this portal, demanding in article 4 that source code be made available and in article 7 the licensing under free licenses, so far only GNU GPL, and prohibiting, in article 5, the use of privative components.
http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/spb/download/file/in_spb_01.pdf (in Portuguese)

RFB did not publish IRPF2011 at the portal, it didn't offer source code, it granted a privative license instead of GNU GPL, and it used privative components, some developed by the company hired to perform the services, others offered by third parties as Free Software, but potentially turned privative by not offering the possibly modified corresponding source code.

To preserve Brazilian taxpayers' freedoms and defend them from the illegality of the software imposed by RFB, we recommend the use of IRPF-Livre 2011. On the other hand, we request RFB, the Public Ministry and the Union Account Court to pursue the correction of this irregularities that have deprived citizens from essential freedoms and rights guaranteed by the aforementioned INs. These norms determine freedom or death to imposed software.

About IRPF-Livre

It's a software development project to prepare Natural Person's Income Tax returns in the standards defined by the Brazilian Receita Federal, but without the technical and legal insecurity imposed by it.

IRPF-Livre is Free Software, that is, software that respects users' freedom to run it for any purpose, to study its source code and adapt it to their needs, and to distribute copies, modified or not.

The program can be obtained, both in source and Java object code forms at the following location:
http://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/fsfla/irpf-livre/2011/

About FSFLA's Campaign against Imposed/Tax Software

We understand the Brazilian law, particularly the Federal Constitution, grant preference to Free Software in the public administration, both internally, for compliance with constitutional principles, and in interactions with citizens, for respect for their fundamental constitutional rights and for compliance with the same and other constitutional principles.

This campaign, started in October, 2006, seeks to educate public administration managers about these obligations that are beneficial both to citizens and to the public administration itself, such that they pay attention not only to compliance with the law, but also to respect for citizens and for digital freedom.
http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2010-03-IRPF-Livre-2010
http://www.fsfla.org/blogs/lxo/pub/misterios-de-eleusis (in Portuguese)
http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2009-04-softimp-irpf-livre-2009
http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2008-04-softimp-irpf-livre-2008
http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2008-02-softimp-irpf2008
http://www.fsfla.org/circular/2007-09#1
http://www.fsfla.org/circular/2007-04#3
http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2007-03-irpf2007 (in Portuguese)
http://www.fsfla.org/circular/2007-03#1
http://www.fsfla.org/circular/2006-11#Editorial
http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2006-10-softimp

About FSFLA's “Be Free!” Initiative

It's a project to renew the original goals of the Free Software Movement: not just promote Free Software itself, but rather Software Freedom, achieved by a user only when all the software s/he uses is Free Software.
http://www.fsfla.org/befree/

To make this goal achievable, besides awareness campaigns and speeches and the activities against “Imposed/Tax Software”, FSFLA has maintained Linux-Libre, a project to set and keep Free the non-Free kernel Linux, most used along with the Free operating system GNU.
http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/
http://www.gnu.org/distros/

About FSFLA

Free Software Foundation Latin America joined in 2005 the international FSF network, previously formed by Free Software Foundations 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.
http://www.fsfla.org/

Press contacts

Alexandre Oliva
Board member, FSFLA
lxoliva@fsfla.org
+55 19 9714-3658 / 3243-5233
+55 61 4063-9714

Copyright 2011 FSFLA

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