Z:gnu-www-ja-rms-kol--d3ea14-Proprietary software is a colo/en

Proprietary software is a colonial system. It's electronic colonialism. And not by a country, but by a corporation. Electronic colonial powers keep people divided and helpless. Look at the end-user licensing agreement. You don't have the source code, you are helpless. You can't share, and so you are kept divided. National colonial powers recruit local elites and pay them and keep them above the rest of the people, working for the colonial masters. Today we see electronic colonial powers recruit native zamindars to keep the system intact. Microsoft sets up a research facility and in exchange it keeps its grip firmly on everyone else. Govts and schools are in their grip. They know how to do this. They know how to buy govt support. But what's the govt buying? Dependency, not development. Only Free Software constitutes development. It enables any activity to be fully under the control of the people doing it. Free Software is appropriate technology. Proprietary software is not appropriate for any use.