Free software is like free media, says Sun CEO

TECHIES around the world are set to celebrate in cyberspace, on blogs, chat forums and live barbecue dinners on Saturday, to awaken the world to their dream goal—a free software world. From the US, Australia, New Zealand and China to India, to even small countries like Ghana, the movement is spreading across earth. On Software Freedom Day (September 19), ET talks to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president of Sun Microsystems, a key proponent of global open source and standard setting initiatives. As successor to Sun founder Scott McNealy, Mr Schwartz has been an outspoken leader on the dangers of proprietary software and benefits of a free software world. Excerpts: What are the advantages of a free software world? How is free software different from open source software? Free software is like free media. It benefits all. Free software has many advantages. First of all it comes with a price tag of zero. (Example: HTML, JavaScript). Secondly, it promotes free innovation and creativity. It’s primarily because of free and open software that Internet has grown to this size. Sun’s Java and Sun Solaris have played a key role in it. But free software may not necessarily be open source software. Free software (as in free beer) may come with a zero price, but may have its source code as closed. We are pushing for a world where all software is both free and open source. To encourage free software, should patents around software be removed? Does Sun engage into active patenting of software? We believe that patents around software are highly dangerous and can stifle growth of the industry. Nobody invented the zero, so there cannot be a patent around it. Likewise with software. Nevertheless, we have an arsenal of about 11,000 patents, which grows at 5% annually. But Sun Microsystems resorts to patenting only for defensive purposes. But won’t a free software world disrupt the models of hundreds of IT companies leading to massive job loss? No, it won’t. More and more companies are evolving themselves around the open source model. Google is one of the pioneers of it. But why do you call proprietary software as dangerous? Proprietary software poses political social and economic risks to governments, organisations and individuals. Tomorrow if a country decides to lock all major documents (which can even be sensitive ones) of another nation, it can do via a company.

All eyes on Goldman and Morgan

New Delhi: With Lehman Brothers consigned to history and Merrill Lynch having sold out to Bank of America, all eyes are on the two remaining big investment banks on Wall Street. The scrutiny intensified after Morgan Stanley shares took a beating on two subsequent days, amidst talk of it being up for sale, while Goldman Sachs shares also nosedived. Analysts feel that both banks are now vulnerable as the markets seem to have lost confidence in the financial foundations on which investment banks are built. They say that the whole business model of a brokerage firm is broken. Professor Nouril Roubeni of New York State University says that ultimately the investment banks will have to merge with the commercial banks, this is in view of the fact that stable funds are a must for a bank to survive. Certainly, banks with access to deposits have a better chance to succeed.

Markets bounce back, sensex up 727 pts

Mumbai: As market regulators worldwide tried to tame the impact of the financial crisis by banning short selling and pumping funds into the system, most markets showed signs of recovery. With leading US indices rallying on Thursday and investors in major Asian markets also stepping in to buy on Friday, the BSE sensex opened with a 450-point gap and continued to gain through the session to close at 14,042, up a whopping 727 points, or 5.5%. The day’s across-the-board rally of the market added about Rs 1.85 lakh crore to investors’ wealth with the BSE’s market capitalization now at Rs 44.75 lakh crore. On Thursday, the US Securities Exchange Commission banned short selling in 799 financial stocks and regulators in other markets also followed suit. Central banks around the world also stepped in and infused money into the system. However, not many believe such steps are good for the long-term health of the market. “It’s more like a desperate move by the regulators,’’ said Amitabh Chakraborty, president (equities), Religare Securities. “Is it a permanent solution? I don’t think so. I believe the steps will help prolong the pain in the market,’’ he felt. And, according to a top dealer at a bank-sponsored brokerage, these governments are behaving irresponsibly by doling out taxpayers’ money to bail out those who had acted intemperately for a number of years. On Friday, the rally was helped by buying in stocks from real estate, IT, oil & gas, power and banking. Among sensex stocks, Satyam ended 10.5% higher at Rs 370, ICICI Bank gained 9.1% at Rs 628, HDFC rallied 8.3% to Rs 2,308 and Tata Power ended 8.3% higher at Rs 1,027. On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the gainers outnumbered the laggards by a margin of about five to two, with 1,888 stocks ending higher compared to 740 that ended in the red.