Rushabh, thanks for the questions. Keep them coming as they help us clarify our thinking. I agree with a few of your statements, and disagree with others. Before I do that, I want to lay out a realistic picture of where we are currently.
Our biggest strength is that we have many supporters in industry, academia and government. Our biggest weakness is that these supporters are scattered and not organized into a collective voice. Our biggest threat is that our opponents are better resourced and have been around in policy circles for a long time. Our biggest opportunity is the fact that FOSS has become a critical part of India’s IT infrastructure.
On the policy front, the “clear and present danger” is the fact that the demand for allowing software patents in India has been raised by the 161st Parliamentary Committee on IPR, the draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) and many other forums. The global FOSS community has been staunchly opposed to software patents because they are against the four freedoms of FOSS. The pro-patent lobby seeks every opportunity to convince Indian policy makers to bring in software patents and I have seen their arguments over several years. Five years ago, they said India should enable software patents because it would help Indian startups in the embedded computing sector. That did not work. Three years ago, they said Indian needs software patents to encourage its software products industry. Again, we pushed back against it with help from our friends in academia. The recent argument, echoed by the 161st Report is that we need software patents to enable AI related innovations.
Changing people’s mindset is one of the hardest tasks in the world and we are up against the current orthodox belief that equates patents with innovation. Despite these headwinds, we are slowly making progress. The number of leading academics and think-tanks that are supporting our End Software Patents campaign is an example. In the next few months, we will have many more added to this list. Our submission on the NDTSP was well received by the folks who drafted it. Rahul Sai Poruri and I spoke to them and they found it eye opening. The pro-patent lobby consists of Big Tech and well funded MNCs with well staffed and highly paid policy professionals supported by large industry associations. Compared to them, we are woefully short-staffed and outnumbered by a ratio of 1:100. However, in our favor, we have the fact that some of the largest e-gov projects in India are built on FOSS, and the central government is keen on protecting our digital sovereignty. We have systematically reached out to senior policy makers and captains of industry to build support for our position on software patents. Once the patent lobby gets entrenched, it will be impossible to dislodge, and we can kiss our developer freedoms goodbye as we face a rash of patent lawsuits. We are doing the quiet, patient and unglamorous grunt work that is needed to avoid such a situation. Therefore, I don’t agree with you when you say that, “we are just reacting to policy initiatives by the government in what seems like a very passive way of approaching things.”
I agree with you when you say that, “we should create our own vision on what good tech policy looks from a FOSS perspective,” and welcome constructive, well articulated and pragmatic suggestions in this area. This also flows from our vision for FOSS United, which we have not articulated yet. To me, FOSS is a force for good, a digital commons that has benefited us all enormously. We have highlighted these positive aspects in our submissions to policy makers.
However, FOSS has become like the air we breathe. We take air for granted until the Average Air Quality Index (AQI) drops to perilous levels. A digital commons is something that constantly needs protecting and a good starting point is by helping people realize the value of these commons. We are talking to academics to do a study that highlights the value of FOSS for India. We are also talking to counterparts in Open Source Initiative, Open Forum Europe and the Linux Foundation to compare notes on the methodologies for the same. At some point we need to shift gears from playing a defensive game to playing an aggressive one. That requires time and money. My estimate is that such a study could cost Rs 20-50 lakhs and I am talking to my sources to raise money for the same. A study that I had commissioned IIM Bangalore to do in 2009 while I was at Red Hat found that India can save $1 billion annually by adopting FOSS. I am sure that the number would be much higher if we did such a study today.
At this point in time, our policy efforts are also extremely person dependent because I am a part time consultant with FOSS United. To de-risk this, I try to share as much as possible on the Policy track of the Forum. The FOSS Policy Volunteer program that we just started is another effort to build collective knowledge and mitigate dependence on me. One of the topics that we have discussed in the past is the need to build the next generation of leadership. I hope to see the next generation of FOSS Policy leaders emerge through this volunteer program. At a personal level, I have been involved with software patents and FOSS Policy since 2004 and feel the need to pass the baton on.
Finally, I have seen many organizations emerge in my career and all of them started with a focus on putting the fundamental building blocks in place. Most of them started with a clear understanding of what needs to be done, and not some grand “vision,” a term that I find overhyped and abused extensively. We also have to be extremely pragmatic and focussed about what we should and should not do. As a FOSS organization, I think we should focus on defending developer freedoms and growing the FOSS community in India, instilling the FOSS values of collaboration, community and the shared ownership of knowledge, and contributing back to the global commons of FOSS instead of just being a nation of downloaders. There are many, many organizations focused on privacy, anti-surveillance and other topics. Each of these are massive battles to be fought and while individuals in the FOSS community might be interested in these battles, these are (A) not battles that are core to developer freedoms (B) and not battles that we have the resources to fight. Given the resources we currently have at our disposal, we have to be extremely selective about the battles we pick. I hope that, in the next few years, we have a new generation of FOSS leaders who will carry the ideals of FOSS forward, and that we have build a robust, long lasting institution in FOSS United, that puts India on the global FOSS map.