software

This true story is brought to us from a small business of architects in Mexico, by our Mexican member Colectiva Ecologista Jalisco. The relevance of this story to consumers comes in the very compelling conclusion that the author reaches at the end.

According to a press release issued by Microsoft last week to announce its "Consumer Action Day" against counterfeit softwareⁱ, "consumers want action", and are relying on Microsoft to "give people a voice in the fight against software counterfeiting". Whilst we do agree that counterfeiting of any kind can endanger consumers when they believe they are purchasing original products, we have to question Microsoft's credentials to represent consumers' interests here.

The Free Software Foundation

Founded in October 1985, the Free Software Foundation (FSFⁱ) is a non-profit organisation that is dedicated to “promoting computer users’ rights to use, study, copy, modify and redistribute computer programmes. Among the various free softwareⁱ, the FSF particularly promotes the development and use of the GNUⁱ operating system.

This is the home of Consumers International's (CIⁱ's) global projects to promote Access to Knowledge (A2Kⁱ) for consumers.