<section id="preface-overview">

    <title>Overview</title>

    <para>

        Since 1999, I've been working for cuban State as Webmaster and

        lately as system administrator. On April 2009, I decided to

        stop working for cuban State due the increasing feeling of

        repression I experimented with the restrictions impossed by

        cuban State in the information area when I tried to find an

        alternative way to express myself different from what such

        restrictions impossed. This environment made me find that the

        cuban political system lacks of such independent alternatives

        for cubans to use.  I don't pretend to use this book to detail

        the political system I live on, but I do want to say that the

        more I got involved with the cuban political system the more

        distance I felt between the most pure of myself and the

        actions the system expected from me to do as system

        administrator, and what could be an alternative way for cubans

        inside the island that, like me, feel the same need of

        independent expression.

    </para>

    <para>

        Everything in the human life is directly related to

        information. Our actions are based on the information we have.

        The information is the base of education and evolution. It is

        the only way we can know how to do the right thing for us and

        others.  I beleive that, in order to provide a good education,

        the universal information must be accessable to everyone in a

        transparent way, based on facts and without any manipulation

        (i.e., in way others can reproduce or verify what the

        information refers to).  That kind of information is good

        information to based our lives on. However, there are also bad

        information that we need to differentiate from good

        information using our own conscience, not that one from

        others. I like the idea of structuring my life over pragmatic

        fatcs that I can verify together with a deep faith on what I

        am that help me to persist along the duty. The pragmatic fatcs

        provides the steps of the stair of my life and the faith, the

        force my body needs to climb up the stair.

    </para>

    <para>

        The years I worked for cuban State coincided with those years

        I began to realized myself about the steps of my stair and the

        faith on my movements. Lot of contradictions have been

        appearing in front of me since then, but a magical thing

        inside me (conscience) always tell me not to abandon the must

        pure of my self and keep going with this travel I'm still

        walking on; even when moving up one step in the stair feels

        like rasping the skin of my body against a rough wall. I know

        it will heal, but it hurts when happens. The only way to

        support the pain is to have faith on the rightness of your

        actions. That's the price of don't loosing oneself when

        walking over pragmatic facts in a confussed and unarmed

        society. That's the price of showing out that truth is inside

        us, not outside us. It is the way of showing the truth is in

        the one's faith, no matter what it be, but in feeling it

        somehow, specially when it comes from understanding what we

        are and the immense gift it is to have conscience of our

        univeral existence as part of that unknown nature we, as

        living humans, cannot ever have conscience of.

    </para>

    <para>

        I've experimented faith in free software and the philosophy

        behind it, but no possible way to manifest it independently

        from cuban State.  The cuban State controls all the

        communication media and very few possibilities are available

        for cubans to build up independent collaborative networks

        using computers inside the island for sharing information

        apart from cuban State restrictions and conditions. One of

        these possibilities is the telepohne network the cuban State

        provides, which has national scope.  Generally, cubans use the

        telephone network to talk among themselves, but it is also

        possible to use this network to transmit information that

        cannot be communicated using the regular method of human

        talking. It is possible to attach computers to the telephone

        network the cuban State provides to transmit whatever

        information a computer can produce (e.g., images, documents,

        programs, etc.) from one location in the island to another and

        encrypting the information traveling along the wire to

        garantee its privacy (e.g., the source computer protects the

        information in a way that only the target computer is able to

        unprotect. If the information is intercepted by a computer in

        the transmission middle, it would be useless for that computer

        since only the target can unprotect it). We'll see more about

        this later.

    </para>

    <para>

        In these last years (2009-2011), the cuban State has shown

        signs to start using free software with the idea of

        <quote>reaching a technology independency</quote> which is

        quiet contradictory to me. What independency we are talking

        about here?  Independency for whom, and from whom? Based on

        the meaning of the word, independency is the lack of

        dependency, so the only way I see the cuban State will be able

        to reach such independency would be creating and maintaining

        an entire technical infrastructure (e.g., computers,

        communication devices, operating systems written from scratch,

        etc.) inside its political boundaries without any intervention

        from the outside world.  Otherwise, the cuban State would be

        inevitably dependent from someone else that can differ at some

        point of the production string and that would be something

        unacceptable, because it would compromise the idea the cuban

        State had about independency in first place (i.e., no

        dependency).

    </para>

    <para>

        If the vision described above about what the cuban State tries

        to mean by <quote>reaching a technological

        independency</quote> sounds correct to you, the cuban State is

        misunderstanding or trying to distort the real meaning of free

        software and the philosophy behind it.  The free software is

        built from people and dedicated to people who might be in need

        of it, with the hope of being useful and garantee the freedom

        of computer users paying or not a monetary price for it.  The

        cuban State, on the other hand, introduces free software at

        convenience because there are entire operating systems free of

        charge which the cuban State can study and change as needed,

        not in the sense of guaranteeing the freedom it provides to

        people, but as a way to control what software does cubans use

        and the way they do that.  It is another impositions cubans

        should comply with, no matter what they think about

        it.<footnote>

        <para>

            When I was working in the health sector of cuban State

            (2003-2007), my superior told me once that I couldn't keep

            using &TC;; on servers any longer, because system

            administrators at central level stopped using Red Hat

            related distribution and started to use Debian. I don't

            want to enter in a debate why one or another distribution,

            that's not the point. But I do want to mention that this

            decision shouldn't be taken from one day to another

            without any consideration about all the time people spent

            studying (and working for) one specific GNU/Linux

            distribution. My opinion was rejected and they kept

            themselves showing me that it was a matter of politics one

            should follow, no matter what one thought about it. I

            couldn't accept that and fired up myself from that

            institution. I cannot change from one operating system to

            another just because someone else wants to.

        </para>

        </footnote> Some people might think that there is no problem

        in that because it is free software anyway. Yes, that's true,

        but think that again: Shouldn't you have the freedom to decide

        what free software to use, and also what community you join

        to? No one must impose you anything about which social

        community you participate in, that is a decision you need to

        take by yourself, not from someone else.

    </para>

    <para>

        The free software isn't free because of its name, but the

        legal, social, economical and political environment it is used

        in. If licenses used by software producers to release their

        works (either freely or privatively) aren't protected somehow

        in that environment, software producers wont be motivated to

        create any software at all (either free or privative).

        Consider what is happening in Cuba with Windows, the operating

        system produced by Microsoft corporation: when someone install

        the Windows operating system, one of the first screens in the

        installation process is the License Agreement under which

        Microsoft corporation releases its product. This agreement

        relys on the copyright concept, a legal instrument that was

        initially created to motivate authors to create more.

        Likewise, the Free Software Foundation relys on the copyright

        concept to distribute free software. The fact the License

        Agreement of Windows operating system isn't complied in Cuba

        (e.g., no cuban pays Microsoft corporation for using its

        operating system) as Microsoft imposses in its License

        Agreement, is a clear sign of international copyright

        violation, no matter if Cuba can or cannot establish

        commercial treatments with Microsoft corporation because of

        the Embargo impossed by United States of America against Cuba.

        It is an ethical matter cubans need to comply with in order to

        help reducing the tension against both nations by showing

        respect for their creators and the way they expect their

        products to be distributed world-wide.  Personally, I don't

        use Windows operating system since 2003 when I discovered the

        free software philosophy,<footnote>

        <para>

            I want to thank my teacher Jesús Aneiros Sosa for

            intructing me in the free software philosophy and for

            leading the Linux User Group (LUG) of Cienfuegos during so

            many years and transmiting the feeling of freedom.

        </para>

        </footnote> but I am worried about the legal issues cubans

        might face when developing free software. For example, will

        the cuban State treat the free software license in the same

        way it treats privative software licenses? If the cuban State

        has no legal regulation to protect the international copyright

        concept (i.e., letting authors to publish their works the way

        they want to and provide the legal protections needed to

        deprive people from using those creations in a way different

        from that one conceived by their authors), it would be very

        difficult to truly motivate people to create free software (or

        anything else) in Cuba.  The main problem here is that you can

        write free software, but what instrument you have to protect

        it from others to make your code privative and forbbid you,

        this way, from using further improvements over the code you

        wrote yourself.

    </para>

    <para>

        It is important to remember that the free software movement

        was initiated by Richard Stallman in the United States of

        America, based on the legal system of that country,

        specifically in the copyright concept being in force. In order

        to use free software, in the sense of freedom thought by

        Richard Stallman, it is required that a similar underlaying

        legal system in matters of copyright concepts be present in

        Cuba, or an agreement be complied among all countries (e.g.,

        The Berna Treatment) for this matters.  I've heard that Cuba

        signed The Berna Treatment, however what is happening with

        Windows operating system gives the impression that cuban State

        is not complying with the agreement it signed on there. For

        cuban society to understand what free software and the

        philosophy behind it really are, it is required to force a

        strong concept of copyright in the cuban legislation, even

        when some authors might want to deny the cuban State from

        using the work they produce or use it under conditions the

        cuban State doesn't agree with. It is required to give that

        legal power to cuban authors, the people who create. I wonder

        if the cuban State is ready for that; and if not, why? I

        really would like to know in order to find a solution.

    </para>

    <para>

        Free software communities are the place where free software is

        produced. There are international, national and local

        communities grouped under the free software philosophy. In

        Cuba, because all the communication media are controlled by

        the cuban State and conceived to its own benefit, it is

        difficult for anyone differing from cuban State to have access

        to communication media where the free software communities

        live in.  I strongly beleive that for the free software

        philosophy to touch the heart of cubans, all free software

        communities must be accessable to cubans.  However, while the

        cuban State keeps itself being inbetween, controlling how the

        cubans can or cannot integrate any specific way of living,

        there will not be free software in Cuba, nor any freedom for

        cubans to make use of.

    </para>

    <para>

        Another frequent topic mentioned by the cuban State

        information media is the migration from privative software to

        free software.  The migration from privative software to free

        software must be initiated from people's deepest comprehension

        of what they are doing, not from impositions of another

        inquestionable order everybody needs to comply with.  So,

        cubans need to feel what freedom is and express it in order to

        perceive a deep impact of free software in cuban society.  We

        cannot pretend that cubans will use free software based on a

        lie or a distorted idea about the freedom it provides, an idea

        like that wont last much before it falls itself into pieces.

        People need a way of identifying themselves apart from any

        social or political system in order for them to be able of

        decide whether or not to be part of one.

    </para>

    <para>

        It is impossible to truly defend freedom if one doesn't have

        felt what it is. The cuban State never talks (at least

        officially) about introducing free software for freeing the

        cuban society from privative software. In fact, if you compare

        the privative software and the way cuban State restricts the

        information management,<footnote>

        <para>

            See resolution 129 emitted by cuban Ministerium of

            Informatics and Telecommunications (MIT).

        </para>

        </footnote> you may find them very similar.  The resolutions

        emitted by cuban State are specific to statal instituions that

        use computers to share information.  I don't know of any legal

        estipulation about using information and communication

        technologies by nautural people outside the statal sector and,

        spite of it, I've heard of cubans that has been called by the

        cuban State security departament to explain why they built a

        computer network in the neighbourhood to share information

        (isn't that obvious) and finally they were intimidated to stop

        doing so.  There isn't a legal instrument in either direction

        that one can use as pattern to act legally. The cuban State

        has all the legal power to condemn you as cuban, but you are

        completly unarmed against it. If the cuban State really wants

        to be democratic, it needs to give to cubans the arms they

        need to fight against it without fear of being defeated.

        Indeed, there would be no defeating at all, but evolution into

        new political states based on cubans needs. It is the majority

        of cubans who should define how The Cuban Tree evolves, not a

        few minority that opresses the unarmed masses.

    </para>

    <para>

        Internet access is another obscured issue inside Cuba.  Around

        2008, Cuba and Venezuela signed up an agreement to connect

        both nation with a trasatlantic fiber optic cable for high

        speed Internet access. In 2011 the cuban State announced the

        arrival of such cable to cuban national territory, but nothing

        more has been mentioned since then.  There is a terrible

        silence about it that make people woundering what happend with

        that millionary invertion. Some people ask themselves why to

        spend so much money on that if cubans cannot make use of it

        and others prefer to think that the entire project failed. It

        is difficult to know what happend exactly because, again,

        there isn't any alternative way of communication but those

        provided and controlled by the cuban State.  The fact is that,

        at present time (2011), there isn't a legal way for cubans to

        contract an Internet service at home, nor even a viable way to

        acquire a fixed telephone line at home either.<footnote>

        <para>

            I know of people that have requested a fixed telephone

            line for their home and more than three years have passed

            and they haven't the line yet. It is also known by

            everyone that others don't even have to make any request

            to have a fixed telephone line at home.

        </para></footnote> However, the same isn't true for extrangers

        coming from other countries who are visiting Cuba or staying

        inhere as residents. The cuban State permits these persons to

        access Internet paying a service in offices called Telepuntos

        or from home using different fees.  Some cubans cannot

        understand this, nor the logic behind it either. Have cubans

        to change their nationality in order to have Internt access

        from their homes in Cuba?

    </para>

    <para>

        In Cuba there is only one telecommunication corporation named

        ETECSA. This organization gives the impresion of being very

        tied to cuban State and controlling everything related to

        telephone networks and dedicated links for data transmistion

        in the island.<footnote>

        <para>

            I heard of a case where someone tried to establish an

            independent connection from Cuba to another country using

            the air as phisical medium for data trasmission and that

            person is pressently suffering years in a cuban prison

            because the cuban State considered such action as illegal

            actions.  At this moment I haven't more information about

            this case.  It is very difficult to be accurate about such

            things without an alternative information medium, apart

            from those under cuban State control.

        </para>

        </footnote> Based on the fact that cuban telephone network is

        the only communication medium most cubans have direct access

        to, my attention is centered on it as phisical medium for

        exchanging information using computers.  It is important to

        remark that, when using the telephone network as medium for

        data transmission, there are limitations in the number of

        simultaneous connections it is possible to phisically

        establish between computers, it could be difficult to obtain

        the Modem devices inside the island, and it could be too much

        expencive to make international calls in order to exchange

        information with public services available on different

        networks outside Cuba's political boundaries.  Besides all

        these restrictions, the cuban telephone network has a national

        scope that can be efficiently used by cubans inside the island

        to share information using computers at a monetary cost of

        national telephone calls and the electrical power consumed by

        computers and communication devices (e.g., modems and

        switches).

    </para>

    <para>

        I beleive that most of problems the cubans presently have are

        caused by a lack of information we need to face in order to

        understand what we are and where we are going to, in the sense

        of an interdependent human being's society.  To face the

        information problem, it is needed to make available

        independent ways for cubans to express themselves in freedom

        and provide, this way, the base arguments needed to edificate

        the solutions of those problems we face today. That's my goal

        with this work: educating myself in the compromise of

        providing an independent space for cubans to discuss and

        coordinate how to create collaborative networks using the

        cuban telephone network<footnote>

        <para>

            Considering that I and most cubans haven't access to

            dedicated links or real IP addresses for data transmission

            at present time.

        </para>

        </footnote> as phisical medium to transmit information using

        computers in freedom.

    </para>

    <para>

        The motivation for this work was taken from the free software

        philosophy exposed by Richard Stallman in his book

        <citetitle>Free Sofware Free Society</citetitle> and my

        personal experience from 2003 to 2009 as active member inside

        &TC;; international community.

    </para>

</section>