Hacker in Law (blogger bablaw) reprinted an open letter to the President in defense of genuine software freedom

LiveJournal has a blog called bablaw , whose author also calls himself the pseudonym Hacker in Law. This is one of the external bloggers most cited at Habrahabr, and his views are also very popular here: for example, on December 22, pointing out his open letter to President Medvedev , I earned 103 plus points (and in addition I have the right to replenish Habrahabr with another guest).

From my own experience, knowing your well-deserved affection for this blogger, today I will point you to another open letter to President Medvedev — this time not written by this blogger himself, but simply reprinted by him today : this is a letter from readers of Linux-related forums. An open letter was published by its authors on the Ubuntu Linux forum . The authors of the letter intend to appeal to the President to prevent the forthcoming strangulation of free software in Russia, primarily tax strangulation. In particular, the letter states:

The economic crisis makes it necessary to save primarily small companies, which , unlike state corporations, cannot receive adequate economic support. Many of these companies are moving to free software. Instead of state support, we see attempts by state fiscal authorities to collect taxes from these free products.

Moreover, so-called experts are attracted, equating free software with gifts and justifying the need to pay taxes on it . (Appendix 3). Following this logic, all citizens who have installed, for example, FireFox (developed by http://www.mozilla.org/ ) or “Taxpayer LE” (developed by FSUE GNIVTS FTS of Russia), must pay a gift tax. This interpretation of laws is, in our opinion, nonsense and contrary to common sense and common international practice.

I will say straight away: this is not the only filth listed in that letter that requires prevention; not the only, but the most blatant.
')
Hacker in Law commented on the efforts of the tax authorities (in his blog “ Happy New Year! And say goodbye to open licenses ... ") with the following words (I quote selectively):

... to accuse commercial organizations of “donating” at the conclusion of a gratuitous license agreement - well, somehow not in a human way ... Not to mention the tax consequences for the unfortunate who received a free license ... Apparently, the tax will determine the value of Linux at the cost of a comparable configuration of Windows or MakOsa ...

There is also a copy of the correspondence between State Duma Deputy V. Kuschev and Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation A. L. Kudrin and First Deputy Chairman of the Research Center for Private Law A. L. Makovsky about this entire tax fraud.

So that all users of Linux and Firefox are not overlaid with new and unprecedented taxes, a public struggle for their rights is necessary, and a truly civil society is needed.

We can start by drawing attention to this open letter, we can start by putting a link to it directly to the main page of Habrahabr.