Globalization and rapid technological change have made knowledge a critical determinant of competitiveness and the key for progress and development, its generation and dissemination assumes paramount significance. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have played an important role in knowledge dissemination and transformation around the globe. On the one hand, the realm of knowledge dissemination has been constantly expanding with the emergence of newer and newer advanced digital technologies and on the other, the digital divide in accessing information technologies have been further widened, the world over

Along with this, the world has also witnessed the emergence of giant multinational companies, which have tactfully used the technological advancements in the area of ICTs for furthering their financial interests. They indeed have made information a commodity for expanding their financial avenues, paving the way for a digital divide between the miniscule minority who have access to ICTs and the majority who were not able to reap its benefits. In order to resist this process, Mr. Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Movement in 1983. As the name FOSS itself implies, the ideology behind the FOSS movement has been that the fruits of the ICT revolution should flow freely among the users of this technology, the world over. Even though this movement gained credence and wide support among the users of ICT, its growth got skewed due to the political clout and technological might of the global conglomerates in this sector, which using aggressive patent regims curtailed the free flow of knowledge which emerged from the ICT revolution.